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GREAT  EVENTS 


IN 


MODERN  HISTORY: 


COMPRISDJO   THE   MOST  REMARKABLE 


DISCOVERIES,  CONQUESTS,  REVOLUTIONS,  GREAT  BATTLES, 


AND  OTHER 


THRILLING  INCIDENTS, 

CHIEFLY    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA, 

jFrom  tit  <&t>mmmttmmt  of  tit  gixtttntl  dfanturs  to  tfje  -l^xtstnt  ©tnu. 

BY  JOHN  FROST,  LL.D. 

PROFUSELY  EMBELLISHED   WITH  ENGRAVINGS, 
FROM  DESIGNS  OF  W.  CROOME, 

AND  OTHER  EMINENT  ARTISTS. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED  BY  J.  W.  BRADLEY, 

No.  48  NORTH  FOURTH  STREET 

1851. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1850,  by  L.  Johnson  &  Co.,  in  the 
Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania. 


PEEFACE. 


The  object  of  the  present  work  is  to  present,  in  a 
striking  point  of  view,  the  most  remarkable  and  influen- 
tial events  of  modern  times.  The  author  has  not  at- 
tempted a  regular  and  continuous  history,  as  that  had 
already  been  given  in  the  volume  of  his  Pictorial  His- 
tory of  the  World,  devoted  to  modern  history.  But  he 
has  in  this  volume  brought  together  a  series  of  narra- 
tives, of  such  a  character  as  he  considered  likely  to 
interest  the  reader  strongly,  and  to  leave  a  lasting  im- 
pression on  the  memory,  at  the  same  time  that  they 
exhibit  the  salient  points  of  history. 


4  PREFACE. 

It  has  been  very  justly  remarked,  that  to  be  really 
and  extensively  useful,  a  book  must  be  entertaining. 
Those  which  lack  this  characteristic,  however  laudable 
may  be  their  design,  and  however  able,  accurate,  and 
minute  their  execution,  cannot  be  generally  useful,  be- 
cause the  mass  of  readers  will  not  read  them  through. 
They  may  buy  them  from  a  sense  of  duty,  because  they 
are  said  to  be  good  books ;  they  may  place  them  on  a 
shelf  and  make  a  resolute  attempt  to  read  them  occa- 
sionally ;  but  if  the  books  are  dry  and  repulsive,  they 
are  laid  aside  after  the  perusal  of  a  few  pages,  and  when 
repeated  attempts  to  accomplish  the  heavy  task  have 
failed,  the  undertaking  is  given  up  in  despair.  The 
volume  is  spoken  of  with  great  respect,  and  permitted 
to  enjoy  a  dignified  repose  on  the  upper  shelf. 

This  is  a  consummation  which  the  author  of  this 
work  has  earnestly  endeavoured  to  avoid.  It  will  be 
seen,  by  a  glance  at  the  table  of  contents,  that  the  events 
selected  for  narration  are  important  and  worthy  of 
notice — interesting  in  themselves,  in  the  characters 
they  exhibit,  and  the  bearing  they  have  exerted  on  the 
destiny  of  mankind.  The  authorities  cited  are  reliable ; 
and  the  authors  quoted  are  among  the  most  eminent 
classics  in  history,  such  as  Robertson,  Hume,  Gold- 
smith, Macauley,  Bonnechose,  and  others1  of  equal  repu- 
tation. It  is  humbly  hoped,  therefore,  that  the  volume 
may  prove  an  entertaining  one,  so  that  readers  who 
once  take  it  up  will  require  no  inducement  but  its 
interesting  and  entertaining  character  to  insure  their 


PREFACE.  5 

reading  it  through.  If  read  through,  it  cannot  fail  to 
be  useful.  Its  facts,  and  the  great  historical  personages 
it  exhibits  will  be  remembered.  They  cannot  be  for- 
gotten. 

In  order  the  better  to  insure  the  recollection  of  inci- 
dents and  characters  presented  in  this  volume,  the 
author  has  embellished  it  profusely  with  engravings. 
These  graphic  helps  to  the  memory  exert  much  influ- 
ence in  extending  and  popularizing  the  knowledge  of 
history.  They  make  the  reader  familiar  with  the  sub- 
ject, at  the  same  time  that  they  afford  pleasure  to  the 
cultivated  eye,  and  serve  to  diffuse  among  all  classes  of 
readers  a  certain  degree  of  knowledge  and  taste  in  the 
fine  arts. 

The  author  is  sensible  to  the  high  degree  of  indul- 
gence with  which  his  very  humble  efforts  in  the  cause 
of  national  education  have  been  regarded  by  his  coun- 
trymen. The  publishers'  returns  of  copies  sold  afford 
a  tolerably  satisfactory  proof  that  his  works  are  very 
widely  diffused  among  the  people;  and  as  this  has  been 
the  case  for  many  years,  he  has  reason  to  believe  that 
they  are  also  approved.  For  this  he  is  deeply  grateful, 
and  he  will  always  endeavour  to  evince  the  sincerity 
of  his  gratitude  by  studiously  aiming  at  real  utility  in 
whatever  he  may  offer  to  the  notice  of  the  public. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Introduction 15 

Accession  of  Francis  1 17 

Accession  of  Charles  V 19 

Commencement  of  the  Reformation 22 

Discoveries  of  the  Portuguese  in  Africa 25 

Voyage  of  Vasco  de  Gama 28 

Voyage  of  Cabral 32 

Astonishing  Conquests  of  Albuquerque  in  India 34 

Discovery  of  America 42 

Conquest  of  Mexico 50 

Conquest  of  Peru 60 

Charles  V.  chosen  Emperor 64 

7 


8  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Luther  summoned  before  the  Emperor 67 

The  Fall  of  Rhodes 71 

Conspiracy  of  Bourbon  and  Death  of  Bayard 75 

Battle  of  Pavia,  and  Capture  of  Francis  1 78 

Liberation  of  Francis 82 

Death  of  Bourbon  and  Sacking  of  Rome 84 

Expeditions  of  Charles  V.  against  the  States  of  Barbary 87 

The  Reformation  in  England 92 

Accession  of  Edward  VI 107 

Persecutions  of  the  Protestants  in  Queen  Mary's  Reign Ill 

Resignation  of  Charles  V 118 

Accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth 123 

Death  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots 126 

Destruction  of  the  Spanish  Armada 127 

Death  of  Queen  Elizabeth 131 

Commencement  of  the  Civil  War  in  France 133 

Battle  of  Dreux,  Siege  of  Orleans,  and  Battle  of  St.  Denis 136 

Battles  of  Jarnac  and  Montcontour 141 

Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew 143 

Formation  of  the  Catholic  League 150 

Assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Guise 153 

Assassination  of  Henry  III , 160 

Battle  of  Ivri 167 

Siege  of  Paris * 169 

Assassination  of  Henry  IV 174 

Accession  of  James  1 183 

The  Gunpowder  Plot 185 

Discovery  and  Exploration  of  North  America 189 

Settlement  of  Virginia 202 

Settlement  of  New  England 208 

Rise  of  Wallenstein 222 

Events    of   the    Thirty    Years'    War — Gustavus    Adolphus — Battle    of 

Leipsic 226 

Death  of  Tilly— Battle  of  Lutzen — Death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 235 

Death  of  Wallenstein 243 

Death  of  Ferdinand  II.  and  Bernard  of  Saxe  Weimar — End  of  the  Thirty 

Years' War 247 


CONTENTS.  9 

PAGE 

Accession  of  Louis  XIII.  of  France 253 

Rise  of  Cardinal  Richelieu 258 

Death  of  Richelieu  and  Louis  XIII.,  and  Accession  of  Louis  XIV 2G0 

The  War  of  the  Fronde 265 

Accession  of  Charles  I.  and  Death  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 273 

Charles's  War  with  Scotland— Fall  of  Strafford 276 

Commencement  of  the  Civil  War  in  England 279 

Capture  of  Charles  1 282 

Trial  and  Execution  of  Charles  1 284 

Accession  and  Government  of  Cromwell 287 

Restoration  of  Charles  II 299 

Attempt  of  James  II.  to  re-establish  the  Catholic  Religion  in  England....  309 

War  between  France  and  Holland — Death  of  Turenne 315 

War  between  France  and  Germany 322 

Accession  of  Philip  V.  of  Spain 324 

Siege  of  Vienna 328 

King  Philip's  War 331 

Accession  of  William  III.  of  England — Battles  of  the  Boyne  and  of  Au- 

ghrim 338 

Accession  of  Queen  Anne  of  England 347 

Exploits  of  the  Buccaneers 352 

Accession  of  George  I.  of  England 363 

Accession  of  George  II. — Rebellion  of  1745 368 

Fall  of  Calcutta,  and  Death  of  the  Prisoners  in  the  Black-hole 374 

Recovery  of  Calcutta — Brilliant  Success  of  Colonel  Clive  in  India 385 

Conquest  of  Canada  by  the  British 390 

The  First  Silesian  War 403 

The  Seven  Years'  War  in  Germany 415 

Opening  of  the  American  Revolution ; 436 

Campaign  of  1776 449 

Campaign  of  1777 464 

Campaigns  of  1778  and  1789 478 

Campaigns  of  1780  and  1781,  and  Close  of  the  War 487 

Commencement  of  the  First  French  Revolution 501 

Capture  of  the  Bastile 506 

The  First  Emigration 509 

The  Royal  Family  brought  from  Versailles  to  Paris 512 

2 


10  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


Death  of  Mirabeau — Flight  of  the  King — Dissolution  of  the  National  As- 
sembly   515 

The  Legislative  Assembly — The  Girondists 519 

Insurrection  of  the  10th  of  August — Flight  of  La  Fayette 526 

Commencement  of  the  Reign  of  Terror — September  Massacres — Battle 

ofValmy 532 

The  National  Convention 535 

Trial  and  Execution  of  Louis  XVI 538 

Vendean  War — Desertion  of  Dumouriez 542 

Fall  of  the  Girondins 545 

Fall  of  Danton 548 

Fall  of  Robespierre 550 

Bonaparte's  First  Campaign  in  Italy 555 

Bonaparte's  Expedition  to  Egypt 564 

Revolution  of  the  18th  Brumaire 572 

Campaign  of  Austerlitz 577 

Invasion  of  Spain 582 

The  War  in  Spain  and  Germany 589 

Napoleon's  Russian  Campaign 594 

Capture  of  the  Insurgente  and  Vengeance 598 

The  Tripolitan  War 604 

Bombardment  of  Tripoli 610 

Capture  of  Derne  and  Close  of  the  War 616 

Commencement  of  the  War  of  1812 619 

Capture  of  the  Guerriere 629 

Capture  of  the  Frolic  and  the  Macedonian 631 

Capture  of  the  Java 639 

Massacre  of  the  River  Raisin,  and  Siege  of  Fort  Meigs 643 

Capture  of  York,  and  Defence  of  Sackett's  Harbour 647 

Defence  of  Fort  Stephenson 651 

Commodore  Perry's  Victory  on  Lake  Erie — Battle  of  the  Thames 655 

Battle  between  the  Hornet  and  Peacock 665 

Battle  between  the  Enterprise  and  Boxer 671 

Operations  on  the  Northern  Frontier  in  1814 675 

Attack  on  Washington  and  Baltimore 683 

Cruise  of  the  Essex 687 

Capture  of  the  Epervier  and  Reindeer 691 


CONTENTS.  11 

PAGE 

Capture  of  the  Penguin 696 

Expedition  of  the  British  against  New  Orleans — Return  of  Peace 700 

The  Greek  Revolution 706 

French  Conquest  of  Algiers — French  Revolution  of  1830 709 

The  Opium  War  between  England  and  China 716 

The  War  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico 723 

French  Revolution  of  1848  and  '49 755 

The  Insurrections  in  Germany 773 

Insurrections  in  Italy 788 

Acquisition  of  California  and  its  Gold  Mines 795 


■ 


INTRODUCTION. 


ODERN  history  may  be  regarded  as 
commencing  with  the  discovery  of 
America,  which  took  place  in  1492. 
The  century  following  (16th  century) 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  both  with  respect 
to  its  extraordinary  events  and  its  dis- 
tinguished men.  It  witnessed  the  great  reformation  in  religion  ; 
the  extended  conquests  of  the  Spaniards  in  America,  and  of 
the  Portuguese  in  India ;  the  civil  wars  of  France,  the  various 
contests  of  Charles  V.  and  Francis  I. ;  the  successful  resist- 
ance of  the  Turkish  power,  threatening  the  conquest  of  the 
whole  west  bf  Europe ;  the  momentous  reigns  of  Henry  VIII. 
and  Elizabeth,  in  England ;  and  the  general  diffusion  of  learn- 
ing and  science  throughout  Europe  by  means  of  the  recently 

discovered  art  of  printing. 

B  13 


14 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


Nor  was  this  period  less  remarkable  for  its  great  men.  With- 
out attempting  to  enumerate  those  of  inferior  rank,  its  sovereigns 
alone  would  serve  to  characterize  the  era.  "  It  was  the  peculiar 
glory  of  that  period,"  says  Robertson,  "to  produce  the  most 
illustrious  monarchs,  who  have  at  any  one  time  appeared  in 
Europe.  Leo,  Charles,  Francis,  Henry,  and  Solyman,  were 
each  of  them  possessed  of  talents  which  might  have  rendered 
any  age,  wherein  they  happened  to  flourish,  conspicuous.  But 
such  a  constellation  of  great  princes  shed  uncommon  lustre  on 
the  sixteenth  century.  In  every  contest,  great  power  as  well 
as  great  abilities  were  set  in  opposition  ;  the  efforts  of  valour 
and  conduct  on  one  side,  counterbalanced  by  an  ecpial  exertion 
of  the  same  qualities  on  the  other,  not  only  occasioned  such  a 
variety  of  events  as  renders  the  history  of  that  period  interest- 
ing, but  served  to  check  the  exorbitant  progress  of  any  of  those 
princes,  and  to  prevent  their  attaining  such  pre-eminence  in 
power  as  would  have  been  fatal  to  the  liberty,  and  happiness  of 
mankind." 

Our  notices  of  the  remarkable  incidents  of  modern  history 
will  commence  with  those  of  the  sixteenth  century ;  commencing 
with  the  accession  of  two  of  its  most  remarkable  sovereigns, 
Francis  I.  of  France,  and  Charles  of  Spain,  afterwards  elected 
emperor  of  Germany  with  the  title  of  Charles  V. 


FRANCIS    I. 


ACCESSION  OF  FRANCIS  I. 

EWIS  XII.  was  succeeded  on  the 
throne  of  France  by  his  son-in-law 
Francis,  count  of  Angouleme,  first 
prince  of  the  blood,  whose  military 
genius,  it  was  foreseen,  would  soon 
disturb  the  peace  of  Europe,  (a.  d. 
1515.)  Young,  brave,  ambitious, 
and  enterprising,  he  immediately 
turned  his  eyes  towards  Italy,  as  the  scene  of  glory  and  of  con- 
quest. His  first  object  was  the  recovery  of  Milan.  But  before 
he  set  out  on  that  expedition,  he  renewed  the  treaty  which  his 
predecessor  had  concluded  with  England ;  and  having  nothing 
to  fear  from  Spain,  where  Ferdinand  was  on  the  verge  of  the 
grave,  he  marched  his  army  towards  the  Alps,  under  pretence 
of  defending  his  kingdom  against  the  incursions  of  the  Swiss. 
Informed  of  his  hostile  intentions,  that  warlike  people  had  taken 
up  arms,  at  the  instigation  of  the  pope,  in  order  to  protect  Maxi- 
milian Sforza,  duke  of  Milan,  whom  they  had  restored  to  his 
dominions,  and  thought  themselves  bound  in  honour  to  support. 
These  hardy  mountaineers  took  possession  of  all  those  passes 
in  the  Alps  through  which  they  thought  the  French  must  enter 
Italy ;  and  when  informed  that  Francis  had  made  his  way  into 
Piedmont  by  a  secret  route,  they  descended  undismayed  into 
the  plain,  and  gallantly  opposed  themselves  on  foot  to  the  heavy- 
armed  cavalry  of  France.  The  two  armies  met  at  Marignan, 
near  Milan,  (Sept.  13  ;)  where  was  fought  one  of  the  most  furious 
and  obstinate  battles  mentioned  in  the  history  of  modern  times. 
The  action  began  towards  evening :  night  parted  the  combatants : 
but  next  morning  the  Swiss  renewed  the  attack  with  unabated 
ardour,  and  it  required  all  the  heroic  valour  of  Francis  to  in- 
spire his  troops  with  courage  sufficient  to  resist  the  shock.  The 
3  b2  17 


18  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

Swiss,  though  broken  at  last  by  the  cavalry,  and  galled  by  the 
cannon,  long  kept  their  ground  ;  and  did  not  retire  till  they  had 
lost  upwards  of  twelve  thousand  of  their  best  troops,  about  one- 
half  of  their  whole  number.  The  loss  of  the  French  was  very 
considerable ;  twenty  thousand  men  fell  on  both  sides ;  and  the 
old  Marshal  Trivulzio,  who  had  been  present  at  eighteen  pitched 
battles,  used  to  declare,  that  in  comparison  of  the  battle  of  Ma- 
rignan,  every  other  engagement  he  had  seen  was  but  the  play 
of  children,  but  this  was  a  combat  of  heroes. 

The  surrender  of  the  city  of  Milan,  and  the  conquest  of  the 
whole  duchy,  were  the  consequences  of  this  victory.  Maximi- 
lian Sforza  resigned  his  claim  in  consideration  of  a  pension; 
and  Francis,  having  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  pope  and  with 
the  Swiss,  returned  into  France,  leaving  to  Charles,  duke  of 
Bourbon,  the  government  of  his  Italian  dominions. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  success  and  glory  of  the  French  monarch 
began  to  excite  jealousy  in  the  breast  of  the  old  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian :  nor  was  the  rapid  progress  of  Francis,  though  in  so 
distant  a  country,  regarded  with  indifference  even  by  the  king 
of  England.  Henry  despatched  a  minister  to  the  court  of 
Vienna,  with  secret  orders  to  propose  certain  payments  to  the 
emperor :  and  Maximilian,  who  was  ever  ready  to  embrace  any 
overture  to  excite  fresh  troubles,  and  always  necessitous,  imme- 
diately invaded  Italy  with  a  considerable  army.  But  that  prince, 
being  repulsed  before  Milan  by  the  French  garrison,  and  hear- 
ing that  twelve  thousand  Swiss  were  advancing  to  its  relief,  re- 
tired hastily  into  Germany ;  made  peace  with  France  and  with 
Venice,  (a.  d.  1516,)  ceded  Verona  to  that  republic  for  a  sum 
of  money,  and  thus  excluded  himself,  in  some  measure,  from  all 
future  access  into  Italy. 


ACCESSION  OF  CHARLES  V. 


19 


CHARLES    V. 


ACCESSION  OF  CHARLES  V. 


|HE  next  remarkable  and  influential 
event  of  the  sixteenth  century  was 
the  death  of  Ferdinand  the  Cath- 
olic, (Jan.  23,  1516,)  and  the  suc- 
cession of  his  grandson  Charles  to 
his  extensive  dominions;  an  event 
which  had  long  been  looked  for,  and 
from  which  the  most  important  con- 
sequences were  expected.  Charles, 
who  had  hitherto  resided  in  the  Low 
Countries,  which  he  inherited  as  heir  of  the  house  of  Burgundy, 
was  now  near  the  full  age  of  sixteen,  and  possessed  a  recollec- 
tion and  sedateness  much  above  his  years ;  but  his  genius  had 
yet  given  no  indications  of  that  superiority  which  its  maturer 
state  displayed.  That  capacious  and  decisive  judgment,  which 
afterwards  directed  so  ably  the  affairs  of  a  vast  empire,  was  left 
to  be  discovered  by  those  great  events  to  which  it  gave  birth, 


20  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

and  those  occasions  which  made  it  necessary.  At  present  there 
was  little  call  for  it. 

Cardinal  Xiruenes,  archbishop  of  Toledo,  a  person  of  equal 
virtue  and  sagacity,  had  prudently  been  appointed,  by  the  will 
of  Ferdinand,  sole  regent  of  Castile,  till  the  arrival  of  his  grand- 
son. This  man,  whose  character  is  no  less  singular  than  illus- 
trious; who  united  the  abilities  of  a  great  statesman  with  the 
abject  devotion  of  a  superstitious  monk;  and  the  magnificence 
of  a  prime  minister  with  the  austerity  of  a  mendicant;  main- 
tained order  and  tranquillity  in  Spain,  notwithstanding  the  dis- 
contents of  a  turbulent  and  high-spirited  nobility.  When  they 
disputed  his  right  to  the  regency,  he  coolly  showed  them  the 
testament  of  Ferdinand,  and  the  ratification  of  that  deed  by 
Charles ;  but  these  not  satisfying  them,  and  arguments  proving 
ineffectual,  he  led  them  insensibly  towards  a  balcony,  whence 
they  had  a  view  of  a  large  body  of  troops  under  arms,  and  a 
formidable  train  of  artillery.  "Behold,"  said  the  cardinal, 
raising  his  voice,  and  extending  his  arm,  "  the  powers  which  I 
have  received  from  his  Catholic  majesty:  by  these  I  govern 
Castile !  and  will  govern  it,  till  the  king,  your  master  and  mine, 
shall  come  to  take  possession  of  his  kingdom."  (a.  d.  1517.) 
A  declaration  so  bold  and  determined  silenced  all  opposition, 
and  Ximenes  maintained  his  authority  till  the  arrival  of  Charles. 

The  fate  of  this  minister  merits  attention,  though  not  imme- 
diately connected  with  the  line  of  general  history.  The  young 
king  was  received  with  universal  acclamations  of  joy ;  but 
Ximenes  found  little  cause  to  rejoice.  He  was  seized  with  a 
violent  disorder,  supposed  to  be  the  effect  of  poison ;  and  when 
he  recovered,  Charles,  prejudiced  against  him  by  the  Spanish 
grandees  and  his  Flemish  courtiers,  slighted  his  advice,  and 
allowed  him  every  day  to  sink  into  neglect.  The  cardinal  did 
not  bear  this  treatment  with  his  usual  firmness  of  spirit.  He 
expected  a  more  grateful  return  from  a  prince,  to  whom  he  de- 
livered a  kingdom  far  more  flourishing  than  it  had  been  in  any 
former  age,  and  authority  more  extensive  and  better  established 
than  the  most  illustrious  of  his  ancestors  had  ever  possessed. 
Conscious  of  his  own  integrity  and  merit,  he  could  not  therefore 
refrain  from  giving  vent,  at  times,  to  indignation  and  complaint. 
He  lamented  the  fate  of  his  country,  and  foretold  the  calamities 
to  which  it  would  be  exposed  from  the  insolence,  the  rapacious- 


ACCESSION  OP  CHARLES  V. 


21 


ness,  and  the  ignorance  of  strangers.  These  feelings  agitated 
the  soul  of  Ximenes,  when  he  received  a  letter  from  the  king, 
genteelly  dismissing  him  from  his  counsels,  under  pretence  of 
easing  his  age  of  that  burden,  which  he  had  so  long  and  so  ably 
sustained.  This  letter  proved  fatal  to  the  minister.  His 
haughty  mind  could  not  endure  disgrace,  nor  his  generous 
heart  the  stings  of  ingratitude :  he  expired  a  few  hours  after 
reading  it. 


CARDINAL    XIMENE 


22 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


REFORM  ER8     PREACHING. 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 


HILE  Charles  was  taking  possession  of 
the  throne  of  Spain,  in  consequence  of 
the  death  of  one  grandfather,  another  was 
endeavouring  to  obtain  for  him  the  impe- 
rial crown.  With  this  view  Maximilian 
assembled  a  diet  at  Augsburg,  (a.  d. 
1518,)  where  he  strove  to  gain  the  favour  of  the  electors  by 
many  acts  of  beneficence,  in  order  to  engage  them  to  choose  that 
young  prince  as  his  successor.  But  Maximilian  himself  having 
never  been  crowned  by  the  pope,  a  ceremony  deemed  essential 
in  that  age,  as  well  as  the  preceding,  he  was  considered  only  as 
king  of  the  Romans,  or  emperor  elect ;  and  no  example  occur- 
ring in  history  of  any  person  being  chosen  successor  to  a  king 
of  the  Romans,  the  Germans,  ever  tenacious  of  their  forms, 
obstinately  refused  to  confer  upon  Charles  a  dignity  for  which 
their  constitution  knew  no  name. 

But  the  diet  of  Augsburg  had  other  business.     Thither  was 
summoned  Martin  Luther,  for  "  propagating  new  and  dangerous 


COMMENCEMENT   OF   THE   REFORMATION.  23 

opinions."  These  opinions  were  no  other  than  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  the  Reformation,  which  soon  diffused  themselves  through 
Germany,  which  were  afterwards  embraced  by  so  many  nations, 
and  which  separated  one-half  of  Europe  from  the  Romish  church. 

After  that  enormous  privilege  which  the  Roman  pontiffs  as- 
sumed of  disposing  of  crowns,  and  of  releasing  nations  from 
their  oath  of  allegiance,  the  most  pernicious  to  society  was  that 
of  absolving  individuals  from  the  ties  of  moral  duty.  This  dan- 
gerous power,  or  one  equivalent  to  it,  the  pope  claimed  as  the 
successor  of  St.  Peter,  and  the  keeper  of  the  spiritual  treasury 
of  the  church,  supposed  to  contain  the  superabounding  good 
works  of  the  saints,  together  with  the  infinite  merits  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Out  of  this  inexhaustible  storehouse  of  superabundant 
merit,  his  holiness  might  retail,  at  pleasure,  particular  portions 
to  those  who  were  deficient.  He  assumed,  in  short,  and  directly 
exercised  the  right  of  pardoning  sins  ;  which  was,  in  other  words, 
granting  a  permission  to  commit  them ;  for  if  it  is  known,  as 
had  long  been  the  case  in  the  Romish  church,  at  what  price  the 
punishment  of  any  crime  may  be  bought  off,  the  encouragement 
to  vice  is  the  same  as  if  a  dispensation  had  been  granted  before- 
hand.    And  even  that  was  frequently  indulged. 

The  influence  of  such  indulgences  upon  morals  may  easily  be 
imagined ;  especially  in  ages  when  superstition  had  silenced 
the  voice  of  conscience,  and  reason  was  bewildered  in  Gothic 
darkness  ;  when  the  church  had  everywhere  provided  sanctuaries, 
which  not  only  screened  from  the  arm  of  the  civil  magistrate 
persons  guilty  of  the  greatest  enormities,  but  often  enabled  them 
to  live  in  affluence. 

The  abuse  of  the  sale  of  indulgences  in  Germany,  where  they 
were  publicly  retailed  in  alehouses,  and  where  the  produce  of 
particular  districts  was  farmed  out,  in  the  manner  of  a  toll  or  cus- 
tom, awakened  the  indignation  of  Martin  Luther,  an  Augustine 
friar,  and  professor  of  theology  in  the  university  of  Wittemberg. 
Luther  was  also  incensed,  it  is  said,  that  the  privilege  of  vend- 
ing this  spiritual  merchandise  had  been  taken  from  his  order, 
and  given  to  the  Dominicans.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  he  wrote 
and  he  preached  against  indulgences.  His  writings  were  read 
with  avidity,  and  his  discourses  were  listened  to  with  admiration. 
He  appealed  to  reason  and  Scripture  for  the  truth  of  his  argu- 
ments, not  to  the  decisions  of  councils  or  of  popes.     A  corner 


24  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

of  the  veil  was  now  happily  lifted.  The  people,  ever  fond  of 
judging  for  themselves,  (and  in  matters  which  concern  them- 
selves only  they  have  an  undoubted  right,)  flattered  by  this  ap- 
peal, began  to  call  in  question  that  authority  which  they  had 
formerly  reverenced,  which  they  had  blindly  adored ;  and  Luther, 
emboldened  by  success,  extended  his  views,  and  ventured  to 
declaim  against  other  abuses.  From  abuses  he  proceeded  to 
usurpations;  from  usurpations  to  errors;  and  from  one  error 
to  another,  till  the  whole  fabric  of  the  Romish  church  began 
to  totter. 

Leo,  in  the  mean  time,  alarmed  at  the  progress  of  this  daring 
innovator,  had  summoned  him  to  answer  for  his  doctrines  at 
Rome.  But  that  citation  was  remitted  at  the  intercession  of 
Frederick,  surnamed  the  Wise,  elector  of  Saxony,  who  had  hith- 
erto protected  Luther ;  and  his  cause  was  ordered  to  be  tried  in 
Germany,  by  Cardinal  Cajetan,  a  Dominican,  eminent  for  scho- 
lastic learning,  and  the  pope's  legate  at  the  imperial  court.  For 
this  end,  among  others,  Cajetan  attended  the  diet  at  Augsburg ; 
and  thither  Luther  repaired  without  hesitation,  after  having 
obtained  the  emperor's  safe-conduct,  though  he  had  good 
reason  to  decline  a  judge  chosen  from  among  his  avowed  adver- 
saries. The  cardinal  received  him  with  decent  respect,  and  en- 
deavoured at  first  to  gain  him  by  gentle  treatment ;  but  finding 
him  firm  in  his  principles,  and  thinking  it  beneath  the  dignity 
of  his  station  to  enter  into  any  formal  dispute,  he  required  him, 
by  virtue  of  the  apostolic  powers  with  which  he  was  vested,  to 
retract  his  errors,  (without  showing  that  they  were  such,)  and  to 
abstain,  for  the  future,  from  the  publication  of  new  and  danger- 
ous opinions.  Luther,  who  had  flattered  himself  with  a  hearing, 
and  hoped  to  distinguish  himself  in  a  dispute  with  a  prelate  of 
such  eminent  abilities,  was  much  mortified  at  this  arbitrary  mode 
of  proceeding.  His  native  intrepidity  of  mind,  however,  did 
not  forsake  him:  he  boldly  replied,  that  he  could  not,  with  a 
safe  conscience,  renounce  opinions  which  he  believed  to  be  true ; 
but  offered  to  submit  the  whole  controversy  to  the  judgment  of 
the  learned,  naming  certain  universities.  This  offer  was  rejected 
by  Cajetan,  who  still  insisted  on  a  simple  recantation ;  and  Lu- 
ther, by  the  advice  of  his  friends,  after  appealing  to  a  general 
council,  secretly  withdrew  from  Augsburg,  and  returned  to  his 
own  country. 


DISCOVERIES   OF   THE   PORTUGUESE  IN  AFRICA. 


25 


WAR   SHIP  OF  THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY. 


DISCOVERIES  OF  THE  PORTUGUESE  IN 
AFRICA. 


HE  navigation  of  Europe,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
though  much  improved  since  the 
age  of  Charlemagne,  was  chiefly 
confined  to  the  Mediterranean  and 
Baltic  seas,  and  was  still  little  more 
than  what  is  now  called  coasting. 
Flanders  was  the  great  theatre  of 
commerce.  Thither,  the  Italian 
states  conveyed  from  the  ports  of 
Egypt  the  precious  commodities  of 
the  East ;  and  thither  the  Hanseatic  merchants  carried  from 
the  shores  of  the  Baltic  the  naval  stores  and  other  rude  mer- 
chandise of  the  North.  To  this  common  mart,  all  European 
nations  resorted.  Here  they  sold  or  exchanged  the  produce  of 
their  several  countries,  and  supplied  themselves  with  what  they 
wanted,  without  dreaming  of  new  ports,  or  suspecting  that  the 
system  of  commerce  could  be  altered.  Dantzic,  Lisbon,  and 
4  C 


26  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

Alexandria,  continued  to  mark  the  limits  of  practical  navigation  ; 
when  the  enlightened  and  enterprising  genius  of  Don  Henry  of 
Portugal  extended  the  views  of  the  mariner,  and  emboldened 
him  to  pilot  the  Atlantic,  or  Great  Western  Ocean.  But  before 
we  speak  of  that  prince,  and  the  discoveries  which  he  accom- 
plished, we  must  say  a  few  words  of  his  country,  hitherto 
considered  only  as  an  appendage  of  Spain. 

Portugal,  which  forms  the  western  coast  of  the  southern  penin- 
sula of  Europe,  had  no  existence  as  a  separate  state  till  towards 
the  close  of  the  eleventh  century.  About  that  time  Alphonso 
VI.,  king  of  Castile  and  Leon,  having  conquered  from  the  Moors 
the  northern  provinces  of  the  present  kingdom  of  Portugal, 
bestowed  them,together  with  his  natural  daughter,  upon  Henry 
of  Burgundy,  a  noble  volunteer,  who  had  assisted  him  in  his 
wars.  Henry  took  only  the  title  of  count ;  but  his  son  Alphonso, 
having  recovered  other  provinces  from  the  Moors,  assumed  the 
regal  dignity  in  1139.  The  kings  of  Portugal,  like  those  of 
Spain,  long  spent  their  force  in  combating  the  Moors,  and  had 
no  connection  with  the  rest  of  Europe.  The  succession  con- 
tinued uninterrupted  in  the  line  of  Burgundy,  till  the  death  of 
Ferdinand  in  1383 ;  when  John  of  Castile,  who  had  married  the 
infanta  of  Portugal,  claimed  the  crown,  as  the  king  had  left  no 
male  issue,  (a.  d.  1385.)  But  the  states  of  Portugal,  after  an 
interregnum  of  eighteen  months,  gave  it  to  John,  natural  brother 
of  their  deceased  sovereign,  and  at  that  time  regent  of  the 
kingdom. 

This  John,  surnamed  the  Bastard,  no  less  politic  than  enter- 
prising, proved  worthy  of  his  new  dignity.  He  was  the  first 
European  prince  who  formed  a  respectable  navy ;  which  he  em- 
ployed, with  equal  success,  in  annoying  his  enemies  and  in 
protecting  his  subjects.  He  took  Ceuta  from  the  Moors,  (a.  d. 
1414,)  and  overawed  the  states  of  Barbary  during  his  whole 
reign.  He  had  several  sons,  who  all  signalized  themselves  by 
their  valour  and  abilities ;  but  more  especially  the  third,  Don 
Henry,  whose  bold  and  enlightened  genius,  assisted  by  the  re- 
ports of  travellers,  led  him  to  project  discoveries  in  the  Western 
Ocean. 

This  amiable  prince,  who  joined  the  virtues  of  a  hero  and  a 
patriot  to  the  knowledge  of  a  philosopher,  turned  to  use  that 
astronomy  which  the  Arabs  had  preserved.     He  had  a  considera- 


DISCOVERIES   OF   THE    PORTUGUESE   IN   AFRICA. 


27 


ble  share  in  the  invention  of  the  astrolabe,  and  first  perceived 
the  advantage  that  might  be  drawn  from  the  direction  of  the 
magnetic  needle  to  the  north ;  which,  though  already  known  in 
Europe,  had  not  hitherto  been  employed  with  any  success  in 
navigation.  He  established  an  observatory  at  -Sagres,  near 
Cape  St.  Vincent,  where  many  persons  were  instructed  in  as- 
tronomy and  the  art  of  sailing.  The  pilots  formed  under  his 
eye  not  only  doubled  Cape  Non,  long  supposed  an  insurmountable 
barrier,  but  advanced  as  far  as  Cape  Bajadore,  and  in  their  re- 
turn discovered  the  island  of  Madeira,  (a.  d.  1420.)  Other 
pilots,  yet  more  bold,  were  sent  out.  They  doubled  Cape  Ba- 
jadore, Cape  Blanco,  Cape  Verd,  and  at  last  Cape  Sierra  Leona, 
within  eight  degrees  of  the  line,  before  the  death  of  Don  Henry, 
(a.  d.  1463.)  In  the  course  of  these  voyages,  the  Azores  and 
Cape  de  Verd  islands  had  been  discovered,  and  the  vine  and  the 
sugar-cane  introduced  into  the  island  of  Madeira,  and  there  cul- 
tivated with  success. 

Under  the  reign  of  John  II.,  a  prince  of  the  most  profound 
sagacity  and  most  extensive  views,  who  first  made  Lisbon  a  free 
port,  the  Portuguese  prosecuted  their  discoveries  with  equal  ar- 
dour and  success.  The  river  Zara,  on  the  other  side  of  the  line, 
conducted  them  to  the  kingdom  of  Congo,  in  the  interior  part 
of  Africa,  where  they  made  easy  conquests,  and  established  an 
advantageous  commerce,  (a.  d.  1484.)  Captain  Diaz  passed  the 
extreme  point  of  Africa,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  the 
Stormy  Cape,  (a.  d.  1486 ;)  but  the  king,  who  saw  more  fully 
the  importance  of  that  discovery,  styled  it  the  Cape  of  Grood 
Hope. 


28 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 


VOYAGE  OF  VASCO  DE  GAMA. 


MANUEL  I.  pursued  the  great  projects 
of  his  predecessors,  (a.  d.  1497.)  He 
sent  out  a  fleet  of  four  ships,  under  the 
command  of  Vasco  de  Gama,  a  noble 
Portuguese,  in  order  to  complete  the 
passage  to  India  by  sea.  This  admiral 
possessed  all  the  knowledge  and  talents 
necessary  for  such  an  expedition,  (a.  d.  1498.)  After  being 
assailed  by  tempests,  encircling  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  and 
ranging  through  unknown  seas,  he  happily  arrived  at  the  city 
of  Calicut,  on  the  coast  of  Malabar,  or  the  higher  part  of  the 
western  side  of  the  great  peninsula  of  India. 

Calicut  was  at  that  time  the  emporium  of  Indostan.  Thither 
the  Arabs  resorted  for  all  the  rich  products  and  precious  manu- 
factures of  the  East.  These  they  carried  in  ships  to  the  ports 
of  the  Red  Sea,  and  sold  to  the  Italian  merchants  from  Alex- 
andria. This  information  Gama  received  at  Melinda,  on  the 
coast  of  Zanguebar,  the  most  eastern  part  of  Africa,  where  he 
had  touched,  and  engaged  a  pilot  who  conducted  him  into  the 
harbour  of  Calicut,  when  the  trade  was  at  its  height.  Here  he 
fortunately  met  with  a  native  of  Barbary,  named  Monzaida, 
who  understood  the  Portuguese  language,  and  whose  admiration 
of  that  people  overbalanced  the  prejudices  of  religion  and 
country.  This  admiration  determined  Monzaida  to  do  every 
thing  in  his  power  to  serve  strangers,  who  unbosomed  themselves 


YABCO    DE    QAM  A. 


VOYAGE   OF   VASCO  DE   GAMA.  31 

to  hini  without  reserve.  He  procured  Gama  an  audience  of  the 
Samorin  or  emperor,  who  received  him  very  favourably ;  and  a 
treaty  of  commerce  was  set  on  foot  in  the  name  of  the  king  of 
Portugal.  But  this  negotiation,  when  almost  completed,  was 
broken  off  by  the  insinuations  of  the  Arabs.  Jealous  of  their 
lucrative  trade,  they  represented  so  strongly  the  danger  of  such 
an  alliance,  and  the  ambition  of  the  Portuguese,  that  Samorin 
took  the  ungenerous  resolution  of  putting  to  death  those  bold 
navigators,  whom  he  had  lately  treated  with  kindness,  and 
whose  friendship  he  seemed  to  desire. 

Informed  of  his  danger  by  the  faithful  Monzaida,  Gama  sent 
his  brother  on  board  the  fleet.  "  Should  you  hear,"  said  he, 
"of  my  death  or  imprisonment,  I  prohibit  you,  as  your  com- 
mander, either  to  attempt  to  release  me  or  to  avenge  my  fate. 
Set  sail  immediately  and  inform  the  king  of  the  success  of  our 
voyage.  I  am  happy  in  having  performed  his  orders,  and  dis- 
covered a  passage  to  India  for  Portugal." 

Fortunately,  however,  matters  were  not  pushed  to  that  ex- 
tremity. Gama  lived  to  carry  to  Portugal  the  news  of  his  own 
success.  The  Samorin  permitted  him  to  join  his  fleet,  and  he 
departed  soon  after  for  Europe. 

No  language  can  express  the  joy  of  the  Portuguese  on  the 
return  of  Gama  to  Lisbon,  (a.  d.  1499.)  They  saw  themselves, 
by  one  daring  enterprise,  in  possession  of  the  richest  commerce 
in  the  world ;  and  no  less  superstitious  than  avaricious,  they 
flattered  themselves  with  the  project  of  extending  their  religion 
along  with  their  dominion. 


32 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 


VOYAGE  OF  CABRAL. 


HE  pope  farther  encouraged  the  Portu- 
guese. Glad  of  an  occasion  of  asserting 
his  universal  sovereignty,  he  granted  to 
them  all  the  countries  which  they  had 
discovered,  or  should  discover,  in  the 
East,  on  condition  that  they  should 
there  plant  the  Catholic  faith.  The 
whole  nation  was  seized  with  the  en- 
thusiasm of  conversion  and  of  conquest. 
They  presented  themselves  in  crowds 
to  man  the  new  fleet  destined  for  India, 
(a.  d.  1500 :)  and  thirteen  ships  sailed, 
as  soon  as  the  season  would  permit, 
from  the  Tagus  to  Calicut,  under  the 
command  of  Alvarez  de  Cabral. 

This  admiral,  in  his  passage  keeping  out  to  sea,  in  order  to 
avoid  the  calms  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  the  storms  which 
had  been  met  with  in  doubling  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  dis- 
covered the  rich  country  now  called  Brazil,  to  which  he  gave 
the  name  of  the  Land  of  the  Holy  Cross.     He  took  possession 


VOYAGE  OF  CABRAL.  33 

of  it  in  the  name  of  the  king  his  master,  and  proceeded  on  his 
voyage.  When  he  arrived  at  the  coast  of  Malabar,  the  Samorin 
made  him  an  offer  of  friendship,  and  invited  him  to  Calicut, 
where  he  had  an  audience  of  that  Indian  prince,  and  was  per- 
mitted to  open  a  magazine  of  commerce.  But  this  good 
understanding  was  of  short  duration.  The  Arabs  again  found 
means  to  poison  the  mind  of  the  Samorin :  the  admiral  did 
not  behave  with  the  greatest  discretion:  mutual  jealousies 
took  place,  mutual  fears,  and  mutual  injuries.  At  last  the  in- 
habitants of  Calicut  rose,  murdered  fifty  Portuguese,  and  burnt 
their  magazine.  This  act  of  hostility  did  not  escape  unpunished. 
Cabral,  in  revenge  of  such  a  breach  of  faith  and  such  under- 
mining perfidy,  destroyed  all  the  Arabian  vessels  in  the  port, 
beat  down  great  part  of  the  city,  and  left  it  in  flames. 

After  this  second  rupture  with  the  Samorin,  the  measures  of 
the  Portuguese  in  India  were  totally  changed.  The  peaceful 
system  of  Gama  was  laid  aside :  the  maxims  of  mutual  advan- 
tage gave  place  to  those  of  violence,  of  force,  and  of  fear ;  and 
commerce  was  established  by  the  sword.  Cabral,  on  leaving 
Calicut,  entered  into  a  negotiation  with  the  kings  of  Cochin, 
Cananor,  Onor,  Culan,  and  other  Indian  princes,  who  were  tri- 
butaries of  the  Samorin,  and  desirous  of  independency,  (a.  d. 
1501.)  This  love  of  freedom  procured  the  Portuguese  the  sove- 
reignty of  Malabar  and  the  trade  of  India.  Cabral  promised 
those  deluded  princes  support,  and  carried  their  ambassadors  to 
the  court  of  Lisbon,  where  such  political  steps  were  taken  as 
rendered  success  infallible.  A  force  was  sent  out  sufficient  to 
combat  the  Samorin.  (a.  d.  1502.)  But  no  prince  could  obtain 
the  protection  of  Portugal  without  first  acknowledging  himself 
its  vassal,  permitting  a  fortress  to  be  erected  in  his  capital,  and 
selling  his  commoditities  to  his  subjects  at  their  own  price.  No 
strange  merchant  might  load  a  cargo,  till  the  Portuguese  were 
served :  nor  any  mariner  ravage  those  seas,  but  with  their  pass- 
ports. They  were  the  terror  and  admiration  of  the  East,  the 
wonder  and  envy  of  the  West.  All  European  merchants  soon 
resorted  to  Lisbon  for  Indian  commodities ;  because  they  could 
there  purchase  them  much  cheaper  than  at  Venice,  or  any  other 
mart  to  which  they  were  brought  by  the  way  of  Egypt,  (a.  d. 
1508.)  And  happily  for  Portugal,  the  Venetians  were  then 
sinking  under  the  pressure  of  the  league  of  Cambray. 
5 


34 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTOR1. 


ASTONISHING  CONQUESTS  OF  ALBUQUERQUE 
IN  INDIA. 


N  order  to  secure  and  render 
perpetual  the  commercial  ad- 
vantages of  the  Portuguese, 
the  chief  command  in  India 
was  given  to  Alphonso  Albu- 
querque, a  man  of  singular 
sagacity  and  penetration,  and 
equally  distinguished  by  his 
military  and  political  talents. 
Albuquerque  was  no  sooner  invested  with  the  government,  than 
he  began  to  form  the  most  extensive  projects ;  many  of  which 
he  executed,  and  with  a  facility  that  is  altogether  incredible. 
The  Arabs  settled  in  India,  and  their  associates,  he  had  long 
been  sensible,  were  the  only  power  in  the  East  that  the  Portu- 
guese had  to  fear.  These  traders  had  secretly  entered  into  a 
league  with  the  Samorin,  the  Sultan  of  Egypt,  and  the  Venetians, 
who  were  gainers  by  their  commerce,  and  whose  interest  it  was 
to  destroy  the  trade  of  Portugal.  The  furnishers  of  the  cara- 
vans and  navigators  of  the  Red  Sea  were  the  natural  enemies 


ALBUQUERQUE. 


CONQUESTS   OF   ALBUQUERQUE   IN   INDIA.  37 

of  the  circumnavigators  of  the  Cape.  Albuquerque  saw  it 
early,  while  a  private  commander.  He  had  therefore  done 
every  thing  in  his  power  to  ruin  their  settlements  on  the  coast 
of  Arabia,  and  their  united  naval  force  had  received  a  signal 
overthrow  in  the  Indian  Ocean.  He  now  extended  his  views: 
he  projected  nothing  less  than  the  conquest  of  Ormus  in  the  Per- 
sian Gulf,  and  of  Aden  at  the  mouth  of  the  Red  Sea ;  where 
Portuguese  squadrons,  stationed,  might  command  the  trade  of 
Persia  and  of  Egypt. 

The  immediate  execution  of  these  projects  would  at  once  have 
proved  fatal  to  the  commerce  of  the  Arabs  and  their  allies ;  but 
Albuquerque,  upon  mature  deliberation,  perceived  the  necessity 
of  establishing  the  Portuguese  more  fully  on  the  coast  of  Mala- 
bar before  he  divided  his  forces,  (a.  d.  1509.)  He  accordingly 
burnt  Calicut,  which  had  long  been  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  his 
countrymen ;  and  observing  that  the  Portuguese  had  yet  no  good 
port  in  a  wholesome  air,  where  they  might  refit  their  ships  and 
recruit  their  seamen,  after  the  fatigues  of  the  European  voyage, 
he  resolved  to  procure  one.  He  found  that  Lisbon  had  need 
of  Goa. 

Goa,  which  rises  to  view  in  the  form  of  an  amphitheatre,  is 
situated  toward  the  middle  of  the  coast  of  Malabar,  in  an  island 
detached  from  the  continent  by  two  branches  of  a  river,  that 
throws  itself  into  the  sea  at  some  distance  from  the  city,  after 
having  formed  beneath  its  walls  one  of  the  finest  harbours  in  the 
world.  It  properly  belonged  to  the  king  of  Decan;  but  a 
Moor,  named  Idalcan,  to  whom  the  government  of  it  had  been 
intrusted,  had  rendered  himself  its  sovereign.  While  this 
usurper  was  occupied  on  the  continent,  Albuquerque  appeared 
before  the  city  and  carried  it  by  assault,  (a.  d.  1510.)  It  was 
afterwards  recovered,  but  soon  retaken :  and  Goa  became  the 
capital  of  the  Portuguese  empire  in  India. 

Albuquerque,  whose  ambition  was  boundless,  attempted  next 
to  establish  the  Portuguese  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel,  (a.  d. 
1511.)  With  this  view  he  made  an  attack  upon  Malacca, 
situated  near  the  straits  of  Singapore,  one  of  the  richest  cities 
in  India,  and  the  best  adapted  for  commerce.  It  was  the  centre 
of  the  trade  between  Japan,  China,  the  Spice  Islands,  and  the 
other  Indian  ports.  When  Albuquerque  appeared  before  Ma- 
lacca, he  found  it  in  a  posture  of  defence  :  and  a  new  obstacle 

D 


33  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

conspired  to  retard  his  progress.  His  friend  Araujo  was  there 
a  prisoner,  and  threatened  with  death  the  moment  the  city 
should  be  besieged.  Deliberating  how  to  act,  while  the  senti- 
ments of  friendship  and  ambition,  perhaps  of  duty,  struggled 
in  his  breast,  he  received  the  following  billet  from  Araujo : 
"  Think  only  of  the  glory  and  advantage  of  Portugal :  if  I 
cannot  be  an  instrument  of  your  victory,  let  me  not  retard  it." 
The  place  was  carried  by  storm  after  an  obstinate  defence  and 
several  changes  of  fortune.  The  Portuguese  found  in  it  an 
immense  booty,  both  in  treasure  and  precious  commodities. 
Albuquerque,  whose  heart  was  superior  to  the  charms  of  gold, 
erected  a  citadel  to  secure  his  conquest,  and  returned  to  Goa. 

The  friendship  of  the  Portuguese  was  now  courted  by  the  sa- 
morin,  Idalcan,  and  all  the  most  formidable  Indian  princes,  who 
offered  to  permit  fortresses  to  be  built  and  factories  to  be  es- 
tablished in  any  part  of  their  dominions.  Albuquerque  did  not 
fail  to  profit  by  these  offers ;  and  judging  that  the  season  was 
now  arrived  for  giving  the  final  blow  to  the  Arabian  commerce 
in  the  East,  he  embarked  in  his  original  projects,  the  conquests 
of  Aden  and  Ormus. 

In  his  attempt  upon  Aden,  which  was  then  the  key  of  Egypt, 
Albuquerque  miscarried :  but  he  committed  so  many  ravages  on 
the  coasts  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  in  the  straits  of  Babelmandel, 
as  entirely  ruined  the  commerce  of  the  Arabs  and  Egyptians. 
(a.  d.  1513.)  He  was  more  successful  in  his  expedition  against 
Ormus,  at  that  time  the  most  opulent  and  splendid  city  in  the 
East.  It  appears  to  have  been  nothing  inferior  to  what  we 
are  told  of  ancient  Tyre,  either  in  wealth  or  in  splendour,  in 
industry  or  in  pleasure :  and,  like  Tyre,  it  was  seated  in  a  bar- 
ren isle.  Like  Tyre,  it  seemed  only  to  have  been  disjoined  from 
the  land  that  it  might  become  queen  of  the  sea.  It  was  one  of 
the  greatest  marts  in  the  universe.  But  its  voluptuous  inhabi- 
tants were  little  able  to  withstand  the  impetuous  and  hardy 
valour  of  the  Portuguese,  (a.  d.  1515.)  Albuquerque  soon 
made  himself  master  of  the  place,  and  had  the  honour  of  there 
receiving  an  embassy  from  the  king  of  Persia. 

The  reduction  of  Ormus,  which  was  the  latest  enterprise  of 
this  truly  great  man,  together  with  the  possession  of  Goa  and 
Malacca,  gave  perfect  security  to  the  Portuguese  commerce  in 
India.     His  successors  afterwards  extended  it  into  China  and 


ALBUQUERQUE    RAVAGING    THE    C0A8T    OF    THE    RED    8EA. 


CONQUESTS   OF   ALBUQUERQUE   IN  INDIA. 


41 


Japan ;  but  it  was  never  more  respectable  than  under  Albu- 
querque. Yet  this  founder  of  his  country's  greatness  died  in 
disgrace,  and  of  a  broken  heart,  if  ever  any  man  may  be  said 
to  have  done  so.  That  dauntless  spirit  which  had  encountered 
so  many  enemies,  and  surmounted  so  many  dangers,  could  not 
support  the  frown  of  his  prince.  Emanuel,  become  jealous  of 
his  glory,  had  listened  to  the  insinuations  of  his  enemies ;  had 
appointed  another  governor  in  his  stead,  and  promoted  those 
whom  he  sent  home  as  criminals.  When  Albuquerque  received 
this  intelligence,  he  sighed  and  said,  "Can  these  things.be  so? 
— I  incurred  the  hatred  of  men  by  my  love  for  the  king,  and 
am  disgraced  by  him  through  his  prepossession  for  other  men. 
To  the  grave,  unhappy  old  man  !  to  the  grave  ! — thy  actions  will 
speak  for  themselves  and  for  thee." 


d2 


42 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 


THE    SAILING    OF    COLUMBUS. 


DISCOVERY   OF  AMERICA. 


HILE  the  Portuguese  were  employed 
in  making  acquisitions 
in  the  East,  and  appro- 
priating to  themselves 
the  most  lucrative  com- 
merce in  the  known 
world,  the  Spaniards 
had  discovered  a  new 
continent  toward  the 
West.  They  had  called  into  existence,  as  it  were,  another 
world ;  had  opened  new  sources  of  trade,  expanded  new  theatres 
of  dominion,  and  displayed  new  scenes  of  ambition,  of  avarice, 
and  of  blood. 

Christopher  Columbus,  a  Genoese  navigator,  who  resided  at 
Lisbon,  and  who  had  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  astronomy, 
first  conceived  the  idea  of  this  new  continent.  Perfectly  ac- 
quainted with  the  figure  of  the  earth,  the  notion  of  the  anti- 


DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA.  43 

podes,  considered  by  reason  as  a  chimera,  and  by  religion  as 
impiety,  appeared  to  him  an  incontestable  fact.  But  if  Cohnn- 
bus  had  not  added  the  stout  heart  of  a  hero  to  the  enlightened 
mind  and  persevering  spirit  of  a  philosopher,  the  world  might 
still  have  been  ignorant  of  his  discoveries.  The  Genoese,  his 
countrymen,  whom  he  proposed  to  put  in  possession  of  another 
hemisphere,  treated  him  as  a  visionary.  He  also  unfolded  his 
project,  the  grandest  that  human  genius  ever  formed,  in  1484, 
to  the  court  of  Portugal  without  success.  He  next  laid  it  before 
the  court  of  Spain ;  where  he  long  suffered  all  that  supercilious 
neglect  which  unsupported  merit  so  often  meets  with  from  men 
in  office,  who  are  too  apt  to  despise  what  they  do  not  understand. 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella  were  then  engaged  in  the  conquest  of 
Granada.  The  Spanish  treasury  was  exhausted.  But  no  sooner 
were  the  Moors  subdued,  than  the  ambitious  mind  of  Isabella 
seemed  to  sympathize  with  the  bold  spirit  of  Columbus.  She 
offered  to  pledge  her  jewels,  in  order  to  furnish  him  with  a  fleet. 
Three  small  vessels  were  fitted  out  by  other  means ;  and  Colum- 
bus set  sail  from  the  port  of  Palos,  in  Andalusia,  on  the  third 
of  August,  in  the  year  1492,  in  quest  of  a  Western  continent, 
with  the  title  of  Admiral  and  Viceroy  of  the  Isles  and  Lands 
which  he  should  discover. 

Transcendent  genius  and  superlative  courage  experience 
almost  equal  difficulty  in  carrying  their  designs  into  execution, 
when  they  depend  on  the  assistance  of  others.  Columbus  pos- 
sessed both,  he  exerted  both;  and  the  concurrence  of  other 
heads  and  other  hearts  were  necessary  to  give  success  to  either : 
he  had  indolence  and  cowardice  to  encounter,  as  well  as  ignorance 
and  prejudice.  He  had  formerly  been  ridiculed  as  a  visionary, 
he  was  now  pitied  as  a  desperado.  The  Portuguese  navigators, 
in  accomplishing  their  first  discoveries,  had  always  some  refer- 
ence to  the  coast :  cape  had  pointed  them  to  cape ;  but  Colum- 
bus, with  no  landmark  but  the  heavens,  nor  any  guide  but  the 
compass,  boldly  launched  into  the  ocean,  without  knowing  what 
shore  should  receive  him,  or  where  he  could  find  rest  for  the 
sole  of  his  foot.  His  crew  murmured,  they  mutinied  ;  they  pro- 
posed to  commit  him  to  those  waves  with  which  he  so  wantonly 
sported,  and  return  to  Spain. 

This  was  a  severe  trial  to  the  courage  of  Columbus,  and  Co- 
lumbus only,  perhaps,  could  have  supported  it.    The  enthusiasm 


44 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


of  genius  added  strength  to  his  natural  fortitude.  Cool  and  un- 
concerned himself  about  every  thing  but  his  great  object,  he  had 
recourse  to  the  softest  language.  He  encouraged  his  men  by  fair 
promises,  he  deceived  his  officers  by  false  reckonings.  But  all 
these  expedients  proved  at  last  ineffectual :  he  demanded  three 
days'  indulgence  ;  at  the  end  of  which,  if  he  did  not  discover  land, 
he  promised  to  abandon  his  project.  His  request  was  granted ; 
and  on  the  morning  of  the  second  day,  being  the  12th  of  Octo- 
ber, to  his  inexpressible  joy,  he  got  sight  of  one  of  the  Bahama 
islands,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  San  Salvador.  He  took 
possession  of  it  in  the  name  of  their  Catholic  majesties,  and 
proceeded  on  his  course. 


THE    LANDING     OP    COLUMBUS. 


After  leaving  San  Salvador,  now  better  known  by  the  name 
of  Guanahani,  given  to  it  by  the  natives,  Columbus  fell  in  with 
several  other  small  islands ;  to  one  of  which  he  gave  the  name 
of  Isabella,  in  honour  of  his  patroness,  and  to  another  that  of 
Ferdinand,  in  compliment  to  the   Catholic   king.     These   he 


DISCOVERY   OF   AMERICA.  45 

rightly  judged  to  belong  to  that  Western  continent  which  he 
sought,  and  which  he  conjectured  must  reach  to  the  Portuguese 
settlements  in  India :  hence  -the  name  of  West  Indies.  At 
length  he  arrived  at  the  island  of  Cuba,  where  he  entered  into 
some  correspondence  with  the  natives,  and  particularly  with  the 
women,  from  whom  he  learned  that  the  gold  ornaments  which 
they  wore  came  from  Bohio,  a  large  island  to  the  south-east. 
Thither  Columbus  steered :  what  heart  does  not  pant  after  gold ! 
He  soon  reached  Bohio,  or  Hayti,  as  it  was  called  by  the  natives, 
to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Espagnola,  altered  by  us  into 
Hispaniola.  Here  Columbus  built  a  fort,  and  planted  a  little 
colony ;  after  which,  having  taken  a  general  survey  of  the  island, 
and  settled  a  friendly  intercourse  with  the  natives,  he  set  out  on 
his  return  to  Spain,  carrying  along  with  him  a  sufficient  quan- 
tity of  gold  to  evince  the  importance  of  his  discoveries,  and 
some  of  those  new  people,  to  complete  the  astonishment  of 
Europe. 

The  natives  of  Hispaniola,  and  indeed  of  all  the  islands  which 
Columbus  had  visited*  were  an  easy,  indolent,  harmless  race. 
They  were  of  a  copper  colour.  The  men  and  the  girls  went 
entirely  naked ;  the  women  had  a  mat  of  cotton  wrapt  about 
their  loins.  They  had  no  hair  on  any  part  of  the  body  but  the 
head;  a  distinction  which  also  is  common  to  the  natives  of  the 
American  continent.  They  considered  the  Spaniards  as  divini- 
ties, and  the  discharge  of  the  artillery  as  their  thunder:  they 
fell  on  their  faces  at  the  sound. 

Columbus  again  entered  the  port  of  Palos  on  the  15th  of 
March,  1493,  after  a  voyage  of  seven  months  and  eleven  days, 
and  was  received  with  universal  acclamations  of  joy.  Those  who 
had  ridiculed  his  project  were  the  readiest  to  pay  court  to  him. 
He  was  ordered  into  the  presence  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
and  desired  to  sit  covered  like  a  grandee  of  Spain.  Royal 
favour  beamed  upon  him  with  unremitting  brightness,  and  the 
church  loaded  him  with  its  benedictions.  Superstition  lent  its 
sanction  to  those  discoveries  which  had  been  made  in  its  defiance. 
Pope  Alexander  VI.  issued  a  bull,  granting  to  the  sovereigns  of 
Spain  all  the  countries  which  they  had  discovered,  or  should 
discover,  a  hundred  leagues  to  the  westward  of  the  Azores. 
A  fleet  of  seventeen  sail  was  fitted  out  in  a  few  months ;  and 
Columbus,  vested  with  yet  more  extensive  powers,  and  furnished 


46  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

with  every  thing  necessary  for  discovery,  for  colonization,  or 
for  conquest,  again  committed  himself  to  the  waves  in  quest  of 
a  Western  Continent. 

Great  things  were  expected  from  this  second  voyage ;  and 
many  new  islands  were  discovered ;  yet  it  ended  in  general  dis- 
appointment, misfortune,  and  disgust.  When  Columbus  arrived 
at  Hispaniola,  with  a  multitude  of  missionaries,  soldiers,  and 
settlers,  he  found  the  fortress  utterly  ruined  and  the  garrison 
all  massacred.  They  had  drawn  upon  themselves  this  untimely 
fate  by  their  arrogance,  licentiousness,  and  tyranny.  These 
particulars  he  learned  from  the  natives,  accompanied  with  such 
marking  circumstances  as  left  him  no  room  to  disbelieve  them. 
He  therefore  entered  once  more  into  friendly  correspondence 
with  those  artless  people,  established  a  new  colony,  and  built  the 
town  of  Isabella ;  afterwards  abandoned  for  that  of  St.  Domin- 
go, which  became  the  capital  of  the  island.  His  next  care  was 
to  discover  the  mines ;  near  which  he  erected  forts  and  left  gar- 
risons to  protect  the  labourers.  But  neither  the  wisdom  nor 
humanity  of  this  great  man  was  sufficient  to  preserve  order 
among  his  followers,  or  to  teach  them  fellow-feeling.  They 
roused  anew,  by  their  barbarities,  the  gentle  spirit  of  the  natives ; 
they  quarrelled  among  themselves,  they  rose  against  their  com- 
mander. Mortified  by  so  many  untoward  circumstances,  Colum- 
bus committed  the  government  of  the  island  to  his  brother 
Bartholomew,  and  returned  to  Spain  in  1496,  with  some  samples 
of  gold  dust  and  gold  ore,  pearls  and  other  precious  products, 
after  having  a  second  time  attempted  in  vain  to  discover  a 
Western  Continent. 

Bartholomew  Columbus  suffered  many  hardships,  and  was  on 
the  point  of  sinking  under  the  mutineers,  before  he  received  any 
assistance  from  the  court  of  Spain;  and  although  the  great 
Christopher  was  able  to  clear  himself  of  all  the  aspersions  of 
his  enemies,  some  years  elapsed  before  he  could  obtain  a  third 
appointment  for  the  prosecution  of  his  favourite  project.  At 
last  a  small  fleet  was  granted  to  him,  and  he  discovered  the  con- 
tinent of  America,  near  the  mouth  of  the  river  Orinoco,  on  the 
first  day  of  August,  in  the  year  1498.  He  carried  off  six  of 
the  natives,  and  returned  to  Hispaniola,  convinced  that  he  had 
now  reached  the  great  object  of  his  ambition. 

But  while  Columbus  was  employed  in  reducing  to  obedience 


DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA. 


47 


mi 

VESPUCIUB. 

the  mutineers  in  that  island,  another  navigator  unjustly  took 
from  him  the  honour  of  the  discovery  of  the  western  continent. 
The  merchants  of  Seville  having  obtained  permission  to  attempt 
discoveries,  as  private  adventurers,  sent  out  four  ships  in  1499, 
under  the  command  of  Alonzo  de  Ojeda,  who  had  accompanied 
Columbus  in  his  second  voyage,  assisted  by  Americus  Vespucius, 
a  Florentine  gentleman,  deeply  skilled  in  the  science  of  naviga- 
tion. This  fleet  touched  on  that  part  of  the  western  continent 
already  discovered  by  Columbus,  whose  tract  Ojeda  followed ; 
and  Americus,  who  was  a  man  of  much  address,  as  well  as  pos- 
sessed of  considerable  literary  talents,  by  publishing  the  first 
voyages  on  the  subject,  and  other  artful  means,  gave  his  name 
to  the  New  World,  in  prejudice  to  the  illustrious  Genoese.  Man- 
kind are  now  become  sensible  of  the  imposture,  but  time  has 
sanctified  the  error ;  and  the  great  western  continent,  or  fourth 
division  of  the  globe,  so  long  unknown  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  still  continues  to  be  distinguished  by 
the  name  of  America. 

This,  however,  was  but  a  small  misfortune  in  comparison  of 
what  Columbus  was  doomed  to  suffer.  His  enemies  having  pre- 
vailed at  the  court  of  Madrid,  a  new  governor  was  sent  out  to 
Hispaniola.  The  great  discoverer  and  his  brother  were  loaded 
with  irons,  and  sent  home  in  that  condition,  in  different  ships. 
Touched  with  sentiments  of  veneration  and  pity,  Vallejo,  cap- 


48 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 


COLUMBUS      IX     CHAINS. 


tain  of  the  vessel  on  board  of  which  the  admiral  was  confined, 
approached  his  prisoner  with  profound  respect,  as  soon  as  he  was 
clear  of  the  island,  and  offered  to  strike  off  the  fetters  with 
which  he  was  unjustly  bound.  "No,  Vallejo  !"  replied  Colum- 
bus, with  a  generous  indignation,  "I  wear  these  fetters  in  con- 
sequence of  an  order  from  my  sovereigns.  They  shall  find  me 
as  obedient  to  this  as  to  all  their  other  injunctions.  By  their 
command  I  have  been  confined,  and  their  command  alone  shall 
set  me  at  liberty." 

The  Spanish  ministry  were  ashamed  of  the  severity  of  their 
creature,  Bovadilla:  Columbus  was  set  at  liberty  on  his  arrival, 
and  a  fourth  command  granted  to  him  in  1502,  for  the  prosecu- 
tion of  farther  discoveries.  But  this  expedition  did  not  prove 
more  fortunate  than  the  former ;  for  although  Columbus  touched 
at  several  parts  of  the  American  continent,  where  he  exchanged 
trinkets  for  gold  and  pearls,  to  a  considerable  amount,  he  failed 
in  an  attempt  to  establish  a  colony  on  the  river  Yebra  or  Belem, 
in  the  province  of  Veragua,  and  lost  every  thing  in  his  course 
home.  He  was  shipwrecked  on  the  island  of  Jamaica :  his  fol- 
lowers mutinied ;  and  after  being  alternately  in  danger  of  perish- 


DISCOVERY   OF   AMERICA.  49 

ing  by  hunger,  or  by  violence,  he  arrived  in  Spain,  in  1505,  to 
experience  a  more  severe  fate  than  either.  Queen  Isabella  was 
dead  at  his  return.  With  her,  all  his  hopes  of  future  favour 
perished.  The  court  received  him  coldly.  His  services  were 
too  great  for  humility  ;  his  proud  heart  disdained  to  sue,  and  his 
aspiring  spirit  could  not  submit  to  neglect.  He  retired  to  Vala- 
dolid,  where  he  was  suffered  to  fall  a  martyr  to  the  ingratitude 
of  that  monarch,  to  whom  he  had  given  the  West  Indies,  and 
for  whom  he  had  opened  a  passage  into  a  richer  and  more  ex- 
tensive empire  than  was  ever  subdued  by  the  Roman  arms. 
He  died  with  firmness  and  composure,  on  the  20th  of  May, 
1506,  in  the  fifty-ninth  year  of  his  age. 

There  is  something  in  true  genius  which  seems  to  be  essen- 
tially connected  with  humanity.  Don  Henry,  Gama,  and  Colum- 
bus, prosecuted  their  discoveries  upon  the  most  liberal  principles, 
those  of  mutual  advantage  :  they  sought  to  benefit,  not  to 
destroy  their  species.  After  the  death  of  Columbus,  the  maxims 
of  Spain,  like  those  of  Portugal,  became  altogether  bloody. 
Religion,  avarice,  and  violence,  walked  hand  in  hand.  The  cross 
was  held  up  as  an  object  of  worship,  to  those  who  had  never 
heard  of  the  name  of  Jesus ;  and  millions  were  deliberately 
butchered,  for  not  embracing  tenets  which  they  could  not  under- 
stand, not  delivering  treasures  which  they  did  not  possess,  or 
not  suffering  oppressions  which  man  was  never  born  to  bear,  and 
which  his  nature  cannot  sustain. 


50 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


LANDING  OF  CORTEZ  IN  MEXICO. 


CONQUEST  OF  MEXICO. 


HE  leader  who  pursued  the  career  of 
arms  in  Spanish  America,  with  least 
violence  to  humanity,  and  most  ad- 
vantage to  his  country,  was  Fernando 
Cortez,  the  conqueror  of  Mexico. 
Before  the  discovery  of  that  rich  and 
powerful  empire,  the  Spanish  colonies 
of  Hispaniola,  Cuba,  Jamaica,  and 
Porto  Rico,  were  in  a  flourishing  con- 
dition :  frequent  expeditions  had  been 
made  to  the  continent,  the  settlements  established  in  Castello  del 
Oro  and  the  Isthmus  of  Darien.  At  last  a  descent  was  made  in 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  information  received  of  the  opulence 
and  grandeur  of  the  Emperor  Montezuma  and  his  capital,  (a.  D. 
1518.)  Velasquez,  governor  of  Cuba,  to  whom  this  intelligence 
was  communicated,  immediately  resolved  upon  the  conquest  of 
Mexico,  and  committed  to  Cortez,  an  officer  hitherto  more  dis- 
tinguished by  his  merit  than  his  rank,  the  execution  of  the  en- 
terprise: and  that  gallant  soldier  accomplished,  what  appears 


CONQUEST   OF   MEXICO.  51 


MONTEZUMA. 


too  bold  even  for  fiction,  the  overthrow  of  an  empire  that  could 
send  millions  into  the  field,  with  so  small  a  force  as  five  hundred 
men. 

A  success  so  unexampled,  in  an  unknown  country,  must  have 
been  accompanied  with  many  favourable  circumstances,  inde- 
pendent of  the  ability  of  the  general,  the  courage  of  the  troops, 
and  even  the  superiority  of  weapons.  Some  of  these  we  know. 
When  Cortez  landed  with  his  little  army  on  the  coast  of  Mexico, 
(a.  d.  1519,)  he  met  with  a  Spanish  captive,  who  understood  the 
dialect  of  the  country,  and  whose  ransom  he  obtained.  He  also 
formed  an  intimacy  with  a  fair  American  named  Marina,  who 
soon  learned  the  Castilian  language,  and  became  both  his  mis- 
tress and  his  counsellor. 

To  these  fortunate  occurrences  may  be  added,  the  arrival  of 
the  ambassadors  of  Montezuma,  who  endeavoured,  by  presents, 
to  engage  the  invaders  to  re-embark.  The  delay  which  this 
negotiation  produced  was  of  infinite  service  to  Cortez.  An 
army,  instead  of  an  embassy,  on  his  first  landing,  might  have 
ruined  him.  He  replied,  by  his  female  interpreter,  who  best 
understood  the  Mexican  tongue,  that  he  was  only  an  ambassador 
himself,  and,  as  such,  could  not  depart  without  an  audience  of 
the  emperor.  This  answer  put  the  ambassadors  of  Montezuma 
to  a  stand.     They  reported  it  to  the  emperor.     He  was  alarmed 


52  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

at  the  request.  They  redoubled  their  presents :  they  employed 
persuasions,  but  to  no  purpose.  Cortez  was  inflexible.  At  last 
they  had  recourse  to  threats,  according  to  their  instructions,  and 
talked  loudly  of  the  forces  and  treasures  of  their  country. 
"These,"  said  Cortez,  turning  to  his  companions,  "these  are 
what  we  seek ;  great  perils  and  great  riches."  Stronger  motives 
could  not  have  been  offered  to  needy  adventurers,  burning  with 
the  spirit  of  chivalry  and  the  lust  of  plunder.  Their  leader 
saw  conquest  in  their  looks ;  and  having  now  received  the  neces- 
sary information,  and  prepared  himself  against  all  hazards,  he 
boldly  marched  toward  the  seat  of  empire. 

The  Spanish  general,  however,  though  so  little  diffident  of  his 
own  strength,  prudently  negotiated  with  such  princes  and  states 
as  he  found  to  be  enemies  of  the  Mexicans.  Among  these  the 
most  powerful  was  the  republic  of  Tlascala.  Cortez  proposed 
an  alliance  to  the  senate.  It  divided  upon  the  subject :  but  at 
last  came  to  a  resolution,  not  only  to  deny  assistance  to  the 
Spaniards,  but  to  oppose  them.  This  resolution  had  almost 
proved  fatal  to  Cortez  and  his  enterprise.  The  Tlascalans  were 
a  brave  people,  and  brought  a  formidable  army  into  the  field ; 
but  by  the  help  of  fire-arms,  artillery,  and  cavalry,  to  those  re- 
publicans above  all  things  tremendous,  the  Spaniards,  after 
repeated  struggles,  were  enabled  to  humble  them.  They  saw 
their  mistake ;  entered  into  a  treaty  with  Cortez,  and  were 
highly  serviceable  in  his  future  operations. 

The  invaders  now  advanced  without  interruption  to  the  gates 
of  Mexico.  Montezuma  was  all  irresolution  and  terror.  That 
mighty  emperor,  whose  treasures  were  immense,  and  whose  sway 
was  absolute ;  who  was  lord  over  thirty  princes,  each  of  whom 
could  bring  a  numerous  army  into  the  field,  was  so  intimidated 
by  the  defeat  of  the  Tlascalans,  that  he  wanted  resolution  to 
strike  a  blow  in  defence  of  his  dignity.  The  haughty  potentate 
who  had  ordered  Cortez  to  depart  his  coasts,  introduced  him  into 
his  capital.  Instead  of  making  use  of  force,  he  had  recourse 
to  perfidy.  While  he  professed  friendship  to  the  Spanish 
general,  he  sent  an  army  to  attack  the  Spanish  colony,  newly 
settled  at  Vera  Cruz,  and  yet  in  a  feeble  condition.  Cortez  re- 
ceived intelligence  of  this  breach  of  faith,  and  took  one  of  the 
boldest  resolutions  ever  formed  by  man.  He  immediately  pro- 
ceeded to  the  imperial  palace,  accompanied  by  five  of  his  prin- 


THE     DEFEAT     OF     NARVAEZ. 


CONQUEST   OF   MEXICO. 


55 


MONTEZUMA    CHAINED. 


cipal  officers,  and  arrested  Montezuma  as  his  prisoner;  carried 
him  off  to  the  Spanish  quarters ;  made  him  deliver  to  punish- 
ment the  officer  who  had  acted  by  his  orders,  and  publicly 
acknowledge  himself,  in  the  seat  of  his  power,  the  vassal  of  the 
king  of  Spain. 

In  the  height  of  these  successes,  Cortez  was  informed  that  a 
new  general,  Pamphilo  de  Narvaez,  sent  by  the  governor  of 
Cuba,  was  arrived  with  a  superior  force  to  supplant  him  in  the 
command,  and  reap  the  fruits  of  his  victory,  (a.  d.  1520.)  He 
marched  against  his  rival :  he  defeated  him ;  he  took  him  pri- 
soner ;  and  the  vanquished  army,  gained  by  the  magnanimity 
and  confidence  of  the  victor,  ranged  themselves  under  his 
standard.  Thus  reinforced,  by  an  occurrence  which  threatened 
the  extinction  of  his  hopes,  he  returned  with  rapidity  to  the 
city  of  Mexico,  where  he  found  full  occasion  for  this  accession 
of  strength. 

The  Mexicans  were  all  in  arms,  and  had  surrounded  the  party 
which  Cortez  had  left  to  guard  the  emperor.  This  insurrection 
was  occasioned  by  the  avarice  and  intemperate  zeal  of  the 
Spaniards;  who,  on  a  solemn  festival  in  honour  of  the  gods  of 
the  country,  had  massacred  two  thousand  of  the  Mexican  nobles, 
under  pretence  of  a  secret  conspiracy,  and  stripped  them  of  their 


56 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


precious  ornaments.  The  spirit  of  the  people  was  roused  :  they 
were  incensed  at  the  confinement  of  their  prince ;  they  were 
filled  with  holy  indignation  at  the  insult  offered  to  the  gods,  and 
they  longed  to  revenge  the  fate  of  their  nobility.  Cortez  found 
it  difficult  to  resist  their  fury.  They  permitted  him,  however, 
to  join  his  detachment,  though  not  from  motives  of  friendship 
or  generosity  :  they  hoped  to  involve  the  whole  body  of  Spaniards 
in  one  undistinguished  ruin.  "We  have  discovered,"  said  they, 
"  that  you  are  not  immortal ;  and  although  the  death  of  every 
Spaniard  should  cost  us  a  thousand  lives,  we  are  determined  to 
complete  your  destruction.  After  so  great  a  slaughter  there 
will  still  remain  a  sufficient  number  to  celebrate  the  victory." 

In  consequence  of  this  resolution,  the  Mexicans  attacked  the 
Spanish  quarters  with  incredible  bravery.  They  were  several 
times  repulsed,  and  as  often  returned  to  the  charge  with  undi- 
minished ardour.  They  devoted  themselves  cheerfully  to  death ; 
boldly  advanced  in  the  face  of  the  artillery,  threw  themselves 
in  crowds  upon  the  musketry,  and  fearlessly  grappled  the  mouths 
of  the  guns  in  attempting  to  ascend  the  fortifications.  Monte- 
zuma judged  this  a  favourable  opportunity  for  obtaining  his 
freedom  and  the  departure  of  the  Spaniards.  On  those  condi- 
tions he  consented  to  employ  his  good  offices  with  his  people. 


tJONQL'EST    OF    MEXICO. 


57 


CORTEZ    OVERLOOKING     THE    PLAIN    OF    OTUMBA. 


He  showed  himself  on  the  ramparts,  clad  in  his  royal  robes,  and 
endeavoured  to  induce  the  multitude  to  retire.  They  at  first 
seemed  overawed  by  the  presence  of  their  sovereign,  and  ready 
to  obey  his  commands ;  but  suddenly  recollecting  the  pusillani- 
mity of  his  behaviour,  their  love  was  changed  into  hate,  their 
veneration  into  contempt,  and  a  stone,  launched  by  an  indignant 
arm,  at  once  deprived  Montezuma  of  the  empire  and  his  life. 

That  accident  gave  sincere  concern  to  Cortez,  and  was  a  real 
misfortune  to  the  Spaniards.  The  successor  of  Montezuma  was 
a  fierce  and  warlike  prince,  and  resolutely  determined  to  support 
the  independency  of  his  country.  Cortez,  after  several  ineffec- 
tual struggles,  found  himself  under  the  necessity  of  quitting  the 
city.  The  Mexicans  harassed  him  in  his  retreat ;  they  took  from 
him  all  his  baggage  and  treasure ;  and  they  engaged  him  in  the 
field,  before  he  had  time  to  recruit  his  forces,  with  an  army  of 
two  hundred  thousand  men.  The  ensigns  of  various  nations 
waved  in  the  air,  and  the  imperial  standard  of  massy  gold  was 
displayed.  Now  was  the  time  of  heroism ;  and  stronger  proofs 
of  it  were  never  exhibited  than  in  the  valley  of  Otumba. 
"Death  or  victory  !"  was  the  charge,  and  the  resolution  of  every 
Spaniard.  The  Mexicans  were  soon  broken,  and  a  terrible 
slaughter  ensued;  but  fresh  crowds  still  pressing  on,  supplied 


58 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


GLADIATORIAL    SACRIFICES    OF    THE     MEXICANS. 


the  place  of  the  slain,  and  the  Spaniards  must  have  sunk  under 
the  fatigue  of  continual  fighting,  had  not  Cortez,  by  a  happy 
presence  of  mind,  put  an  end  to  the  dispute  and  rendered  the 
victory  decisive.  He  rushed,  at  the  head  of  his  cavalry,  towards 
the  imperial  standard,  closed  with  the  Mexican  general  who 
guarded  it,  and  at  one  stroke  of  his  lance  tumbled  him  out  of  his 
litter.  The  standard  was  seized,  and  the  consequence  proved, 
as  Cortez  had  expected :  the  Mexicans  threw  down  their  arms, 
and  fled  with  precipitation  and  terror. 

This  victory,  and  the  assistance  of  the  Tlascalans,  encouraged 
Cortez  to  undertake  the  siege  of  Mexico  :  and  another  fortunate 
circumstance  enabled  him  to  complete  his  conquest.  The  new 
emperor,  Guatimozin,  was  taken  prisoner  in  attempting  to  make 
his  escape  out  of  his  capital,  in  order  to  rouse  to  arms  the  dis- 
tant provinces  of  his  dominions,  (a.  d.  1521.)  The  metropolis 
surrendered,  and  the  whole  empire  submitted  to  the  Spaniards. 

The  city  of  Mexico  is  represented  as  one  of  the  most  striking 


CONQUEST  OF  MEXICO.  59 

monuments  of  human  grandeur.  Its  spacious  squares,  its  sump- 
tuous palaces,  its  magnificent  temples,  are  pompously  displayed 
by  the  Spanish  historians ;  but  we  must  not  give  entire  credit 
to  those  splendid  descriptions.  The  mechanical  arts  could  not 
be  carried  to  great  perfection  in  a  country  where  the  use  of  iron 
was  unknown ;  nor  could  the  sciences  or  liberal  arts  be  culti- 
vated with  success  among  a  people  ignorant  of  letters.  The 
hieroglyphics,  which  the  Mexicans  are  said  to  have  made  use 
of  for  communicating  their  ideas,  could  but  imperfectly  answer 
that  end,  in  comparison  of  general  symbols  or  signs ;  and  with- 
out a  facile  method  of  recording  past  transactions,  and  of  pre- 
serving our  own  thoughts  and  those  of  others,  society  can  never 
make  any  considerable  progress.  The  ferocious  religion  of  the 
Mexicans  is  another  proof  of  their  barbarity ;  for  although  we 
frequently  find  absurd  ceremonies  prevail  among  polished  na- 
tions, we  seldom  or  ever  meet  with  those  that  are  cruel.  Civil- 
ized man  has  a  feeling  for  man.  Human  blood  was  profusely 
spilled  upon  the  altars  of  the  Mexican  gods :  and,  if  we  believe 
the  most  respectable  Spanish  historians,  human  flesh  (though 
only  that  of  enemies)  was  greedily  devoured  both  by  the  priests 
and  the  people.  Enormous  superstition  and  excessive  despotism 
always  go  hand  in  hand.  When  the  mind  is  enslaved,  it  is  easy 
to  enslave  the  body.  Montezuma  was  the  most  absolute  sove- 
reign upon  earth,  and  his  subjects  the  most  abject  slaves. 


60 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN  HISTORY. 


RUINS  OF  THE  PALACE  OF  THE  INCAS. 


CONQUEST  OF  PERU. 


HE  conquest  of  Mexico  was  followed  by 
that  of  Peru,  another  country  in  the 
New  World,  abounding  yet  more  in 
precious  metals. 

Peru  had  long  been  governed  by  a 
race  of  emperors,  under  the  name  of 
Incas,  who  were  supposed  to  be  the 
descendants  of  the  sun.  (a.  d.  1532.) 
The  name  of  the  Spanish  invader  was 
Pizarro,  assisted  by  Almagro  andLuque, 
and  that  of  the  Inca  in  possession  of 
the  crown,  Atahualpa.  Alarmed  at  the  ravages  of  the  Spaniards, 
this  prince  agreed  to  an  interview  with  their  general,  in  order  to 
settle  the  conditions  of  a  peace.  Though  Pizarro  solicited  the 
conference,  he  had  no  thoughts  but  of  war.  The  Inca,  it  is  said, 
was  not  more  sincere  in  his  professions.  He  came  to  the  place 
of  meeting  carried  upon  a  throne  of  gold,  and  attended  by  up- 


CONQUEST   OF   PERU. 


6) 


PI  Z  ARRO. 


wards  of  ten  thousand  men :  twenty  thousand  more  are  reported 
to  have  waited  his  signal ;  but  for  this  report,  or  the  insincerity 
of  the  Inca,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  foundation  in  fact. 
All  the  Peruvians  were  richly  dressed,  and  their  arms  glittered 
with  gold  and  precious  stones.  The  avarice  of  the  Spaniards 
was  inflamed.  Pizarro  disposed  his  followers,  who  did  not  ex- 
ceed two  hundred,  in  the  most  advantageous  order,  while  Vin- 
centi  Valverde,  a  Dominican  friar,  advanced  towards  Atahualpa, 
with  a  crucifix  in  one  hand  and  a  breviary  in  the  other.  He 
addressed  to  the  Inca,  by  the  help  of  an  interpreter,  a  long  dis- 
course, unfolding  the  principles  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  press- 
ing him  to  embrace  that  religion,  and  submit  himself  to  the  king 
of  Spain,  to  whom  the  pope  had  given  Peru.  Atahualpa,  who 
had  listened  with  a  good  deal  of  patience,  replied  thus  to  his 
pious  admonisher :  "  How  extravagant  is  it  in  the  pope,  to  give 
away  so  liberally  that  which  does  not  belong  to  him ! — He  is 
inferior,  you  own,  to  God  the  Father,  to  God  the  Son,  and  to 
God  the  Holy  Ghost :  these  are  all  your  gods :  and  the  gods 
only  can  dispose  of  kingdoms.     I  should  like  to  be  a  friend  to 

F 


62 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


A  L  M  A  O  E  O. 


the  king  of  Spain,  who  has  sufficiently  displayed  his  power  by 
sending  armies  to  such  distant  countries ;  but  I  will  not  be  his 
vassal.  I  owe  tribute  to  no  mortal  prince  :  I  know  no  superior 
upon  earth.  The  religion  of  my  ancestors  I  venerate :  and  to 
renounce  it  would  be  equally  absurd  and  impious,  until  you  have 
convinced  me  it  is  false,  and  that  yours,  which  you  would  have 
me  embrace,  is  true.  You  adore  a  god,  who  died  upon  a  gibbet ; 
I  worship  the  sun,  who  never  dies." 

"Vengeance!" — cried  Valverde,  turning  towards  the  Spa- 
niards ; — "  vengeance  !  my  friends ; — kill  these  dogs,  who  de- 
spise the  religion  of  the  cross." 

The  word  of  command  was  given ;  the  artillery  played ;  the 
musketry  fired ;  the  cavalry  spread  confusion  and  terror,  while 
Pizarro  advanced,  at  the  head  of  a  chosen  band,  and  seized  the 
person  of  the  Inca.  The  slaughter  was  dreadful,  and  the  pillage 
immense.  The  blow  was  final :  Peru  ceased  to  be  an  empire. 
The  descendants  of  the  Sun,  who  united  in  their  person  both 
the  regal  and  pontifical  dignity,  sunk  under  a  set  of  banditti 


CONQUEST   OF   PERU. 


63 


that  knew  not  their  birth.  After  draining  Atahualpa  of  his 
treasure,  under  pretence  of  a  ransom  for  his  liberty,  Pizarro 
condemned  him  to  be  burnt  alive,  as  an  obstinate  idolater,  (a.  d. 
1533.)  But  through  the  mediation  of  Father  Valverde,  (blessed 
intercessor !)  the  Inca's  sentence  was  changed  into  strangling, 
on  condition  that  he  should  die  in  the  Christian  faith ! 

The  conquest  of  Mexico  and  Peru  put  the  Spaniards  at  once 
in  possession  of  more  specie  than  all  the  other  nations  of  Europe. 
Yet  Spain  from  that  era  has  continued  to  decline.  It  has  de- 
clined in  population,  industry,  and  vigour.  The  vices  attendant 
upon  riches  have  corrupted  all  ranks  of  men,  and  enervated  the 
national  spirit.  From  being  the  first  kingdom  in  Europe,  it  is 
become  one  of  the  less  considerable.  Portugal  has  experienced 
a  like  fate,  since  the  discovery  of  the  passage  to  India  by  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  the  settlement  of  Brazil :  and  from 
the  same  cause,  a  too  great  and  sudden  influx  of  wealth. 


64 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODKUN   HISTORY. 


CHARLES  V.  CHOSEN  EMPEROR. 


HOUGH  Maximilian  could  not 

C~r-^\      -— »^^|\>^^      h    prevail    upon    the    German 
■     x  M     m50(  W§K"^  ^ta**7    electors  to  choose  his  grand- 
&\J  ^    ffi\   son  of   Spain  king  of   the  Romans, 
he  had  disposed  their  minds  in  favour 
of  that  prince  :    and   other  circum- 
stances, on  the  death  of  the  emperor, 
conspired    to  the   exaltation  of   Charles. 
(a.  d.  1519.)     The  imperial  crown  had  so 
long  continued  in  the  Austrian  line,  that 
it  began  to  be  considered  as  hereditary  in  that  family  ;  and 
Germany,  torn  by  religious  disputes,  stood  in  need  of  a  power- 
ful emperor,  not  only  to  preserve  its  own  internal  tranquillity, 
but  also  to  protect  it  against  the  victorious  arms  of  the  Turks, 
who,  under  Selim  I.,  threatened  the  liberties  of  Europe.     This 
fierce  and  rapid  conqueror  had  already  subdued  the  Mamalukes, 
a  barbarous  militia  that  had  dismembered  the  empire  of  the 
Arabs,  and  made  themselves  masters  of  Egypt  and  Syria.    The 
power  of  Charles  appeared  necessary  to  oppose  that  of  Selim. 
The  extensive  dominions  of  the  house  of  Austria,  which  gave 
him  an  interest  in  the  preservation  of  Germany;  the  rich  so- 
vereignty of  the  Netherlands  and  Franche-Comte ;  the  entire 
possession  of  the  great  and  warlike  kingdom  of  Spain,  together 
with  that  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  all  united  to  hold  him  up  to  the 
first  dignity  among  Christian   princes :    and  the  New  World 


CHARLES  V.  CHOSEN  EMPEROR.  65 

seemed  only  to  be  called  into  existence,  that  its  treasures  might 
enable  him  to  defend  Christendom  against  the  infidels.  Such 
was  the  language  of  his  partisans. 

Francis  I.,  however,  no  sooner  received  intelligence  of  the 
death  of  Maximilian,  than  he  declared  himself  a  candidate  for 
the  empire,  and  with  no  less  confidence  of  success  than  Charles. 
He  trusted  to  his  superior  years  and  experience,  with  his  great 
reputation  in  arms,  acquired  by  the  victory  at  Marignan,  and 
the  conquest  of  Milan.  And  it  was  further  urged  in  his  favour, 
that  the  impetuosity  of  the  French  cavalry,  added  to  the 
firmness  of  the  German  infantry,  would  prove  irresistible  ;  and 
not  only  be  sufficient,  under  a  warlike  emperor,  to  set  limits  to 
the  ambition  of  Selim,  but  to  break  entirely  the  Ottoman 
power,  and  prevent  it  from  ever  becoming  dangerous  again  to 
Germany. 

Both  claims  were  plausible.  The  dominions  of  Francis  were 
less  extensive,  but  more  united  than  those  of  Charles.  His 
subjects  were  numerous,  active,  brave,  lovers  of  glory  and  lovers 
of  their  king.  These  were  strong  arguments  in  favour  of  his 
power,  so  necessary  at  this  juncture ;  but  he  had  no  natural 
interest  in  the  Germanic  body :  and  the  electors,  hearing  so 
much  of  military  force  on  each  side,  became  more  alarmed  for 
their  own  privileges  than  the  common  safety.  They  determined 
to  reject  both  candidates,  and  offered  the  imperial  crown  to 
Frederic,  surnamed  the  Wise,  duke  of  Saxony.  But  he,  undaz- 
zled  by  the  splendour  of  an  object  courted  with  so  much  eager- 
ness by  two  mighty  monarchs,  rejected  it  with  a  magnanimity 
no  less  singular  than  great. 

"  In  times  of  tranquillity,"  said  Frederic,  «  we  wish  for  an 
emperor  who  has  no  power  to  invade  our  liberties ;  times  of 
danger  demand  one  who  is  able  to  secure  our  safety.  The 
Turkish  armies,  led  by  a  warlike  and  victorious  monarch,  are 
now  assembling :  they  are  ready  to  pour  in  upon  Germany  with 
a  violence  unknown  in  former  ages.  New  conjunctures  call  for 
new  expedients.  The  imperial  sceptre  must  be  committed  to 
some  hand  more  powerful  than  mine,  or  that  of  any  other  Ger- 
man prince.  We  possess  neither  dominions,  nor  revenues,  nor 
authority,  which  enable  us  to  encounter  such  a  formidable 
enemy.  Recourse  must  be  had,  in  this  exigency,  to  one  of  the 
rival  monarchs.  Each  of  them  can  bring  into  the  field  forces 
9  f2 


66  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

sufficient  for  our  defence.  But,  as  the  king  of  Spain  is  of  Ger- 
man extraction,  as  he  is  a  member  and  prince  of  the  empire  by 
the  territories  which  descend  to  him  from  his  grandfather,  and 
as  his  dominions  stretch  along  that  frontier  which  lies  most  ex- 
posed to  the  enemy,  his  claim,  in  my  opinion,  is  preferable  to 
that  of  a  stranger  to  our  language,  to  our  blood,  and  to  our 
country."  Charles  was  elected  in  consequence  of  this  speech. 
The  two  candidates  had  hitherto  conducted  their  rivalship 
with  emulation,  but  without  enmity.  They  had  even  softened 
their  competition  by  many  expressions  of  friendship  and  regard. 
Francis  in  particular  declared,  with  his  usual  vivacity,  that  his 
brother  Charles  and  he  were  fairly  and  openly  suitors  to  the 
same  mistress  :  "  The  most  assiduous  and1  fortunate,"  added 
he,  "will  win  her  ;  and  the  other  must  rest  contented."  But, 
although  a  generous  and  high-minded  prince,  while  animated  by 
the  hope  of  success,  might  be  capable  of  forming  such  a  philo- 
sophic resolution,  it  soon  appeared  that  he  had  promised  a 
moderation  too  refined  for  humanity,  and  which  he  was  little 
able  to  practise.  Charles  was  elected  emperor  on  the  28th  of 
June,  1520.  The  preference  was  no  sooner  given  to  his  rival 
than  Francis  discovered  all  the  passions  natural  to  disappointed 
ambition.  He  could  not  suppress  his  chagrin  and  indignation 
at  being  baulked  in  his  favourite  purpose,  and  rejected  in  the 
face  of  all  Europe,  for  a  youth  yet  unknown  to  fame.  The 
spirit  of  Charles  resented  such  contempt :  and  from  this  jea- 
lousy, as  much  as  from  opposition  of  interests,  arose  that  emu- 
lation between  those  two  great  monarchs,  which  involved  them 
in  almost  perpetual  hostilities,  and  kept  their  whole  age  in 
agitation. 


LUTHER  SUMMONED  BEFORE  THE  EMPEROR. 


67 


$ 

1 


LUTHER  SUMMONED  BEFORE  THE  EMPEROR. 


HE  first  act  of  Charles's  administra- 
tion was  the  appointing  a  diet  to 
be  held  at  Worms,  in  order  to  con- 
cert with  the  princes  of  the  empire 
proper  measures  for  checking  the 
progress  of  "those  new  and  dan- 
gerous opinions  which  threatened 
,  to  disturb  the  peace  of  Germany, 
and  to  overturn  the  religion  of 
their  ancestors."  The  opinions 
propagated  by  Luther  and  his  fol- 
That  bold  innovator,  after  the  diet  at 
Augsburg  and  the  death  of  Maximilian,  had  freely  promulgated 
his  opinions,  under  the  protection  of  the  elector  of  Saxony,  to 
whom  the  vicariate  of  that  part  of  Germany  which  is  governed 
by  the  Saxon  laws  was  committed,  during  the  interregnum  that 
preceded  the  election  of  Charles  V.     And  these  opinions  were 


lowers  were  here  meant. 


68  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

suffered  to  take  root  in  different  places,  and  to  grow  up  to  some 
degree  of  strength  and  firmness.  But  Leo  X.,  though  little  skilled 
in  such  controversies,  came  at  last  to  be  alarmed  at  Luther's 
progress ;  and  convinced  that  all  hopes  of  reclaiming  him  by  for- 
bearance were  in  vain,  issued  a  bull  of  excommunication  against 
him.  His  books  were  ordered  to  be  burnt,  and  he  himself  was 
delivered  over  to  Satan  as  an  obstinate  heretic,  if  he  did  not, 
within  sixty  days,  publicly  recant  his  errors. 

This  sentence  neither  disconcerted  nor  intimidated  Luther. 
After  renewing  his  appeal  to  a  general  council,  he  published 
remarks  upon  the  bull  of  excommunication,  and  boldly  declared 
the  pope  to  be  the  man  of  sin,  or  Antichrist,  whose  appearance 
is  foretold  in  the  Revelation  of  St.  John ;  declaimed  against  the 
tyranny  and  usurpations  of  the  court  of  Rome  with  greater  vehe- 
mence than  ever,  exhorted  all  Christian  princes  to  shake  off 
such  an  ignominious  yoke,  and  boasted  of  his  own  happiness  in 
being  marked  out  as  the  object  of  ecclesiastical  indignation, 
because  he  had  ventured  to  assert  the  rights  of  religion  and  the 
mental  liberty  of  mankind.  Nor  did  he  confine  his  contempt  of 
the  papal  power  to  words  alone.  He  assembled  all  the  profes- 
sors and  students  of  the  university  of  Wittemberg,  and  with  great 
pomp,  and  before  a  vast  multitude  of  spectators,  cast  the  volumes 
of  the  canon  law,  together  with  the  bull  of  excommunication,  into 
the  flames  :  and  his  example  was  imitated  in  several  other  cities. 

While  the  credit  and  authority  of  the  Roman  pontiff  were 
thus  furiously  shaken  in  Germany,  an  attack  no  less  violent, 
and  occasioned  by  the  same  causes,  was  made  upon  them  in 
Switzerland.  The  Franciscans,  being  intrusted  with  the  sale 
of  indulgences  in  that  country,  executed  their  commission  with 
the  same  unblushing  rapaciousness  which  had  rendered  the  Do- 
minicans so  odious  in  Saxony.  They  proceeded,  however,  with 
uninterrupted  success  till  they  arrived  at  Zurich ;  where  they 
received  a  mortal  blow  from  Zuinglius,  canon  of  that  place,  a 
man  of  extensive  learning,  uncommon  sagacity,  and  heroic  intre- 
pidity of  spirit.  Animated  with  a  republican  boldness,  and  free 
from  those  restraints  which  subjection  to  the  will  of  a  prince, 
and  perhaps  a  remnant  of  original  prejudice,  imposed  upon  the 
German  reformer,  he  advanced  with  more  daring  and  rapid 
steps  to  overturn  the  whole  fabric  of  the  established  religion ; 


LUTHER  SUMMONED  BEFORE  THE  EMPEROR.  69 

and  the  pope's  supremacy  was  soon  denied  in  the  greater  part 
of  Switzerland. 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  Reformation,  when  Charles  V. 
arrived  in  Germany.  No  secular  prince  had  yet  embraced  the 
new  opinions ;  no  change  in  the  established  forms  of  worship  had 
been  introduced,  nor  any  encroachments  made  upon  the  pos- 
sessions or  jurisdiction  of  the  clergy :  a  deep  impression,  how- 
ever, was  made  upon  the  minds  of  the  people ;  their  reverence 
for  ancient  institutions  and  doctrines  was  shaken;  and  the 
materials  were  already  scattered,  which  produced  the  conflagra- 
tion that  afterwards  spread  over  all  Europe.  Charles  saw  the 
flames  gathering ;  and,  as  he  found  it  necessary  to  secure  the 
friendship  of  Leo  X.,  he  cited  Luther  to  appear  before  the  diet 
at  Worms,  (a.  d.  1521.)  Luther  did  not  hesitate  a  moment 
about  yielding  obedience :  he  accompanied  the  herald  who  brought 
the  emperor's  letter  and  safe-conduct.  "  I  am  lawfully  called  to 
appear  in  that  city,"  said  he  to  some  of  his  friends,  who  were 
anxious  for  his  safety :  «  and  thither  I  will  go  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord,  though  as  many  devils  as  tiles  upon  the  houses  were 
there  assembled  against  me." 

Had  vanity  and  the  love  of  applause,  from  which  no  human  heart 
is  free,  been  the  sole  principles  by  which  Luther  was  influenced, 
his  reception  at  "Worms  was  such  as  he  might  have  reckoned  a 
full  reward  for  all  his  labours.  Vast  crowds  assembled  to  see 
him  whenever  he  walked  abroad ;  and  his  apartments  were  daily 
filled  with  princes  and  personages  of  the  highest  rank,  who  treated 
him  with  all  the  respect  that  is  due  to  superior  merit,  but  which 
is  more  particularly  commanded  by  those  who  possess  the  power 
of  directing  the  understanding  and  the  sentiments  of  others. 
Rank  or  birth  can  receive  no  homage  so  flattering ;  for  they 
can  receive  none  so  sincere,  or  which  has. so  immediate  a  refer- 
ence to  those  qualities  which  men  call  their  own.  Luther  was 
not,  however,  intoxicated  :  he  behaved  before  the  diet  with  equal 
decency  and  firmness.  He  readily  acknowledged  an  excess  of 
vehemence  and  acrimony  in  his  controversial  writings ;  but  he 
refused  to  retract  his  opinions,  till  convinced  of  their  falsehood, 
or  consent  to  their  being  tried  by  any  other  standard  than  the 
Scripture.  Neither  threats  nor  entreaties  could  prevail  on  him  to 
depart  from  this  resolution.  Some  of  the  fathers  therefore  pro- 
posed to  imitate  the  example  of  the  council  of  Constance,  in  its 


70 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


proceedings  relative  to  John  Huss ;  to  commit  to  the  flames  the 
author  of  this  pestilent  heresy,  now  in  their  power,  and  deliver 
the  church  at  once  from  so  dangerous  an  enemy :  but  the  members 
of  the  diet  refusing  to  expose  the  German  integrity  to  fresh  re- 
proach by  a  second  violation  of  public  faith,  and  Charles  being 
no  less  unwilling  to  bring  a  stain  upon  the  beginning  of  his  ad- 
ministration by  such  an  ignominious  measure,  Luther  was  per- 
mitted to  depart  in  safety.  A  few  days  after  he  left  the  city, 
a  severe  edict  was  issued  in  the  emperor's  name,  and  by  author- 
ity of  the  diet,  forbidding  any  prince  to  harbour  him,  and  re- 
quiring all  to  concur  in  seizing  his  person  as  soon  as  his  safe- 
conduct  was  expired.  But  the  elector  of  Saxony,  his  faithful 
patron,  took  him  again,  though  secretly,  under  protection.  Lu- 
ther, in  solitude,  propagated  his  opinions ;  and  Charles,  for  a 
time,  found  other  matters  to  engage  his  attention. 


COSTUME    OF    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 


THE  FALL  OF  RHODES. 


71 


THE  FALL  OF  RHODES. 


HILE  the  Christian  princes  were  wast- 
ing each  other's  strength,  Solyman  the 
Magnificent  entered  Hungary  with  a 
numerous  army,  and  investing  Bel- 
grade, which  was  deemed  the  chief  bar- 
rier of  that  kingdom  against  the  Turk- 
ish arms,  soon  forced  it  to  surrender. 
Encouraged  by  this  success,  he  turned 
his  victorious  arms  against  the  island 
of  Rhodes,  the  seat,  at  that  time,  of  the  knights  of  St.  John 
of  Jerusalem.  This  small  state  he  attacked  with  such  a  nu- 
merous army  as  the  lords  of  Asia  have  been  accustomed  in 
every  age  to  bring  into  the  field.  Two  hundred  thousand  men, 
and  a  fleet  of  four  hundred  sail,  appeared  against  a  town  de- 
fended by  a  garrison  consisting  of  five  thousand  soldiers,  and 
six  hundred  knights,  under  the  command  of  Villiers  de  L'Isle 
Adam,  the  grand  master,  whose  wisdom  and  valour  rendered 
him  worthy  of  that  station  at  such  a  dangerous  juncture.  No 
sooner  did  he  begin  to  suspect  the  destination  of  Solyman's 
vast  armaments,  than  he  despatched  messengers  to  all  the  Chris- 
tian courts,  imploring  their  aid  against  the  common  enemy. 


72 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


But  though  every  prince  in  that  age  acknowledged  Rhodes  to 
be  the  great  bulwark  of  Christendom  in  the  east,  and  trusted 
to  the  gallantry  of  its  knights  as  the  best  security  against  the 
progress  of  the  Ottoman  arms  ;  though  Adrian,  with  a  zeal 
which  became  the  head  and  father  of  the  church,  exhorted  the 
contending  powers  to  forget  their  private  quarrels,  and,  by 
uniting  their  arms,  to  prevent  the  Infidels  from  destroying  a 
society  which  did  honour  to  the  Christian  name ;  yet  so  violent 
and  implacable  was  the  animosity  of  both  parties,  that,  regard- 
less of  the  danger  to  which  they  exposed  all  Europe,  and  un- 
moved by  the  entreaties  of  the  grand  master  or  the  admonitions 
of  the  pope,  they  suffered  Solyman  to  carry  on  his  operations 
against  Rhodes  without  disturbance.  The  grand  master,  after 
incredible  efforts  of  courage,  of  patience,  and  of  military  con- 
duct during  a  siege  of  six  months  ;  after  sustaining  many  as- 
saults, and  disputing  every  post  with  amazing  obstinacy,  was 
obliged  at  last  to  yield  to  numbers ;  and  having  obtained  an 
honourable  capitulation  from  the  sultan,  who  admired  and  re- 
spected his  virtue,  he  surrendered  the  town,  which  was  reduced 
to  a  heap  of  rubbish,  and  destitute  of  every  resource.  Charles 
V.  and  Francis  I.,  ashamed  of  having  occasioned  such  a  loss  to 
Christendom  by  their  ambitious  contests,  endeavoured  to  throw 
the  blame  of  it  on  each  other,  while  all  Europe,  with  greater 
justice,  imputed  it  equally  to  both.  The  emperor,  by  way  of 
reparation,  granted  the  knights  of  St.  John  the  small  island  of 
Malta,  in  which  they  fixed  their  residence,  retaining,  though 
with  less  power  and  splendour,  their  ancient  spirit  and  implaca- 
ble enmity  to  the  Infidels. 


DEATH    OF    CHEVALIER    BAYARD. 


CONSPIRACY  OF  BOURBON  AND  DEATH  OF  BAYARD.     75 


CONSPIRACY  OF  BOURBON  AND  DEATH  OF 
BAYARD. 

T  has  already  been  intimated  that  Charles  V. 
and  Francis  I.  were  often  at  war.  During 
one  of  their  wars,  of  which  Italy  was  the 
theatre,  Francis  on  his  march  to  that  coun- 
try was  obliged  to  stop  short  at  Lyons,  in 
consequence  of  the  discovery  of  a  plot  which 
threatened  the  destruction  of  his  kingdom. 
Charles,  duke  of  Bourbon,  high  constable 
of  France,  was  a  prince  of  the  most  shining  talents.  His  great 
abilities  equally  fitted  him  for  the  council  or  the  field,  while  his 
eminent  services  to  the  crown  entitled  him  to  its  first  favour. 
But  unhappily  Louisa,  duchess  of  Angouleme,  the  king's  mother, 
had  contracted  a  violent  aversion  against  the  house  of  Bourbon, 
and  had  taught  her  son,  over  whom  she  had  acquired  an  abso- 
lute ascendant,  to  view  all  the  constable's  actions  with  a  jealous 
eye.  After  repeated  affronts  he  retired  from  court,  and  began 
to  listen  to  the  advances  of  the  emperor's  ministers.  Mean- 
time the  duchess  of  Bourbon  happened  to  die ;  and  as  the  con- 
stable was  no  less  handsome  than  accomplished,  the  duchess  of 
Angouleme,  still  susceptible  of  the  tender  passions,  formed  the 
scheme  of  marrying  him.  But  Bourbon,  who  might  have  ex- 
pected every  thing  to  which  an  ambitious  mind  can  aspire,  from 
the  doating  fondness  of  a  woman  who  governed  her  son  and  the 
kingdom,  incapable  of  imitating  Louisa  in  her  sudden  transition 
from  hate  to  love,  or  of  meanly  counterfeiting  a  passion  for  one 
who  had  so  long  pursued  him  with  unprovoked  malice,  treated 
the  proposal  with  disdain,  and  even  turned  it  into  ridicule.  At 
once  refused  and  insulted  by  the  man  whom  love  only  could 
have  made  her  cease  to  persecute,  Louisa  was  filled  with  all  the 
rage  of  disappointed  woman  :  she  resolved  to  ruin,  since  she 
could  not  marry  Bourbon.     For  this  purpose  she  commenced 


76  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

an  iniquitous  suit  against  him  ;  and  by  the  chicanery  of  Chan- 
cellor Du  Prat,  the  constable  was  stript  of  his  whole  family 
estate.  Driven  to  despair  by  so  many  injuries,  he  had  recourse 
to  measures  which  despair  only  could  have  dictated.  He  en- 
tered into  a  secret  correspondence  with  the  emperor  and  the 
king  of  England ;  and  he  proposed,  as  soon  as  Francis  should 
have  crossed  the  Alps,  to  raise  an  insurrection  among  his  nu- 
merous vassals,  and  to  introduce  foreign  troops  into  the  heart 
of  France. 

Happily  Francis  got  intimation  of  this  conspiracy  before  he 
left  the  kingdom.  But,  not  being  sufficiently  convinced  of  the 
constable's  guilt,  he  suffered  so  dangerous  an  enemy  to  escape ; 
and  Bourbon,  entering  into  the  emperor's  service,  employed  all 
the  resources  of  his  enterprising  genius,  and  his  military  skill, 
to  the  prejudice  of  his  sovereign  and  his  native  country.  He 
took  a  severe  revenge  for  all  his  wrongs. 

In  consequence  of  the  discovery  of  this  plot,  and  the  escape 
of  the  powerful  conspirator,  Francis  relinquished  his  intention 
of  leading  his  army  in  person  into  Italy.  He  was  ignorant 
how  far  the  infection  had  spread  among  his  subjects,  and  afraid 
that  his  absence  might  encourage  them  to  make  some  desperate 
attack  in  favour  of  a  man  so  much  beloved.  He  did  not,  how- 
ever, abandon  his  design  on  the  duchy  of  Milan ;  but  sent  for- 
ward, in  order  to  subdue  it,  an  army  of  thirty  thousand  men, 
under  the  command  of  Admiral  Bonnivet.  Collona,  who  was  in- 
trusted with  the  defence  of  that  duchy,  was  in  no  condition  to 
resist  such  a  force  ;  and  the  city  of  Milan,  on  which  the  whole 
territory  depends,  must  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  French, 
had  not  Bonnivet,  who  possessed  none  of  the  talents  of  a  gene- 
ral, wasted  his  time  in  frivolous  enterprises,  till  the  inhabitants 
recovered  from  their  consternation.  The  imperial  army  was 
reinforced,  Colonna  died,  and  Lannoy,  viceroy  of  Naples,  suc- 
ceeded him  in  the  command,  (a.  d.  1524.)  But  the  military 
operations  were  chiefly  conducted  by  the  duke  of  Bourbon  and 
the  marquis  de  Pescara,  the  two  greatest  generals  of  their  age. 
Bonnivet,  destitute  of  the  talents  necessary  to  oppose  such  able 
commanders,  was  reduced,  after  various  movements  and  en- 
counters, to  the  necessity  of  attempting  a  retreat  into  France. 
He  was  pursued  by  the  imperial  generals,  and  routed  at  Bia- 
grassa. 


CONSPIRACY  OF  BOURBON  AND  DEATH  OF  BAYARD.  77 

Here  fell  the  chevalier  Bayard,  whose  contempt  of  the  arts 
of  courts  prevented  him  from  ever  rising  to  the  chief  command, 
but  who  was  always  called,  in  times  of  real  danger,  to  the  posts 
of  difficulty  and  importance.  Bonnivet  being  wounded,  the 
conduct  of  the  rear  was  committed  to  Bayard.  He  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  heavy-armed  cavalry,  and  animating  them  by 
his  presence  and  example,  to  sustain  the  whole  shock  of  the  Im- 
perial army,  he  gained  time  for  the  body  of  his  countrymen  to 
make  good  their  retreat.  But  in  that  service  he  received  a 
mortal  wound ;  and  being  unable  any  longer  to  continue  on 
horseback,  he  ordered  one  of  his  attendants  to  place  him  under 
a  tree,  where  he  calmly  waited  the  approach  of  death.  In  this 
situation  he  was  found  by  Bourbon,  who  led  the  van  of  the  Im- 
perialists, and  expressed  much  sorrow  for  his  fate.  "  Pity  not 
me !"  cried  the  high-minded  chevalier :  "  I  die,  as  a  man  of 
honour  ought,  in  the  discharge  of  my  duty ;  but  pity  those 
who  fight  against  their  king,  their  country,  and  their  oath." 


q  2 


78 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


SDERENDER     OF    FRANCIS    I. 


BATTLE  OF  PA  VIA,  AND  CAPTURE  OF 
FRANCIS  I. 


HE  emperor  and  his  allies  were  less 
successful  in  their  operations  on  the 
frontiers  of  France.  They  were 
baffled  on  all  sides.  And  Francis, 
though  stripped  of  his  Italian  do- 
minions, might  still  have  enjoyed, 
in  safety,  the  glory  of  having  de- 
fended his  native  kingdom  against 
one-half  of  Europe,  and  have  bid 
defiance  to  all  his  enemies,  could  he 
have  moderated  his  military  ardour. 
But  understanding  that  the  king  of  England,  discouraged 
by  his  former  fruitless  enterprises,  and  disgusted  with  the 
emperor,  was  making  no  preparations  for  invading  Picardy, 
his  rage  for  the  conquest  of  Milan  returned;   and  he  deter- 


BATTLE   OF   PAVIA,   AND   CAPTURE   OF  FRANCIS  I.  79 

mined,  notwithstanding  the  approach  of  winter,  to  march  into 
Italy. 

The  French  army  no  sooner  appeared  in  Piedmont,  than  the 
whole  duchy  of  Milan  was  thrown  into  consternation.  The 
capital  opened  its  gates.  The  forces  of  the  emperor  and  Sforza 
retired  to  Lodi :  and  had  Francis  been  so  fortunate  as  to  pursue 
them,  they  must  have  abandoned  that  post,  and  been  totally 
dispersed.  But  his  evil  genius  led  him  to  besiege  Pavia,  (Oct. 
28,)  a  town  of  considerable  strength,  well  garrisoned,  and  de- 
fended by  Antonio  de  Leyva,  one  of  the  bravest  officers  in  the 
Spanish  service.  Every  thing  known  to  the  engineers  of  that 
age,  or  which  could  be  effected  by  the  valour  of  his  troops,  was 
attempted  in  vain  by  the  French  monarch  against  this  important 
place,  during  a  siege  of  three  months.  In  the  mean  time,  con- 
fident of  success,  he  had  detached  a  considerable  part  of  his 
army  to  invade  the  kingdom  of  Naples  :  and  the  main  body  was 
much  wasted  by  the  fatigues  of  the  siege  and  the  rigour  of  the 
season.  The  imperial  generals  had  not  hitherto  molested  him, 
but  they  were  not  idle.  Pescara  and  Lannoy  had  assembled 
forces  from  all  quarters ;  and  Bourbon,  having  pawned  his  jewels, 
had  gone  into  Germany,  and  levied  at  his  own  expense  a  body 
of  twelve  thousand  Lansquenets,  (a.  d.  1525.)  The  united  army 
advanced  to  the  relief  of  Pavia,  now  reduced  to  extremity  for 
want  of  ammunition  and  provisions.  Prudence,  and  the  advice 
of  his  most  experienced  officers,  dictated  to  Francis  the  pro- 
priety of  a  retreat ;  but  his  own  romantic  notions  of  honour, 
and  the  opinion  of  Bonnivet,  unhappily  determined  him  to 
keep  his  post.  Having  said  that  he  would  take  Pavia  or 
perish  in  the  attempt,  he  thought  it  ignominious  to  depart  from 
that  resolution;  and  he  anxiously  waited  the  approach  of  the 
enemy. 

The  imperial  generals  found  the  French  so  strongly  intrenched 
that  they  hesitated  long  before  they  ventured  to  attack  them. 
But  the  necessities  of  the  besieged,  and  the  murmurs  of  their  own 
troops,  obliged  them  at  last  to  put  every  thing  to  hazard.  Never 
did  armies  engage  with  greater  ardour,  or  with  a  higher  opinion 
of  the  battle  they  were  going  to  fight,  (Feb.  24  ;)  never  were  men 
more  strongly  animated  with  personal  emulation,  national  antipa- 
thy, mutual  resentment,  and  all  the  passions  which  inspire  obsti- 
nate bravery.     The  first  efforts  of  the  French  valour  made  the 


80  INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 

firmest  battalions  of  the  Imperialists  give  ground;  but  the  fortune 
of  the  day  was  soon  changed.  The  Swiss  troops,  in  the  service 
of  France,  unmindful  of  their  national  honour,  shamefully  de- 
serted their  post.  Pescara  fell  upon  the  French  cavalry  with 
the  Imperial  horse,  intermingled  with  a  considerable  number  of 
Spanish  foot,  armed  with  the  heavy  muskets  then  in  use,  and 
broke  that  formidable  body ;  while  Leyva,  sallying  out  with  his 
garrison,  during  the  heat  of  action,  made  a  furious  assault  on 
the  enemy's  rear,  and  threw  every  thing  into  confusion.  The 
rout  became  general.  But  Francis  himself,  surrounded  by  a 
brave  nobility,  many  of  whom  fell  by  his  side,  long  sustained  the 
combat.  His  horse  being  killed  under  him,  he  fought  on  foot, 
undistinguished  but  by  his  valour,  and  killed  seven  men  with  his 
own  hand.  At  last  he  was  observed  by  Pomperant,  a  French 
gentleman,  who  had  followed  the  fortunes  of  Bourbon,  and  who 
now  saved  the  life  of  his  sovereign,  ready  to  sink  beneath  an 
enraged  soldiery.  By  his  persuasion,  Francis  was  prevailed 
upon  to  surrender ;  yet  he  obstinately  refused,  imminent  as  the 
danger  was,  to  deliver  up  his  sword  to  Bourbon.  Lannoy  re- 
ceived it.  But  Bourbon  had  the  cruel  satisfaction  of  exulting 
over  his  sovereign's  distress,  and  of  repaying,  from  revenge,  the 
insults  offered  by  jealousy. 

This  victory  and  the  captivity  of  Francis  filled  all  Europe 
with  alarm.  Almost  the  whole  French  army  was  cut  off:  Milan 
was  immediately  abandoned ;  and  in  a  few  weeks  not  a  French- 
man was  left  in  Italy.  The  power  of  the  emperor,  and  still 
more  his  ambition,  became  the  object  of  universal  terror :  and 
resolutions  were  everywhere  taken  to  set  bounds  to  it.  Mean- 
while Francis,  deeply  impressed  with  a  sense  of  his  misfortune, 
wrote  to  his  mother  Louisa,  whom  he  had  left  regent  of  the  king- 
dom, the  following  short  but  expressive  letter:  "All  is  lost  but 
honour!" 

The  same  courier  that  delivered  this  letter  carried  also  de- 
spatches to  Charles,  who  received  the  news  of  the  signal  and 
unexpected  success  which  had  crowned  his  arms  with  the  most 
hypocritical  moderation.  He  would  not  suffer  any  public  re- 
joicings to  be  made  on  account  of  it ;  and  said  he  only  valued 
it,  as  it  would  prove  the  occasion  of  restoring  peace  to  Chris- 
tendom. Louisa,  however,  did  not  trust  to  those  appearances. 
Instead  of  giving  herself  up  to  such  lamentations  as  were  natural 


BATTLE  OF  PAVIA,  AND  CAPTURE  OF  FRANCIS  I. 


81 


to  a  woman  remarkable  for  maternal  tenderness,  she  discovered 
all  the  foresight  and  exerted  all  the  activity  of  a  consummate 
politician.  She  took  every  possible  measure  for  putting  the 
kingdom  in  a  posture  of  defence,  while  she  employed  all  her 
address  to  appease  the  resentment  and  to  gain  the  friendship  of 
England ;  and  a  ray  of  comfort  from  that  quarter  soon  broke 
in  upon  the  French  affairs. 


82 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 


LIBERATION   OF  FRANCIS. 


E  AN  WHILE  Francis  was  rigorously  con- 
fined; and  hard  conditions  being  proposed  to 
him  as  the  price  of  his  liberty,  he  drew  his 
dagger,  and  pointing  it  at  his  breast,  cried, 
"  'Twere  better  that  a  king  should  die  thus  !" 
But  flattering  himself,  when  he  grew  cool,  that 
such  propositions  could  not  come  directly  from 
Charles,  he  desired  that  he  might  be  removed  to  Spain,  where 
the  emperor  then  resided.  His  request  was  complied  with ;  but 
he  languished  long  before  he  could  obtain  a  sight  of  his  con- 


LIBERATION  OF  FRANCIS.  83 

queror.  At  last  lie  was  favoured  with  a  visit ;  and  the  emperor, 
dreading  a  general  combination  against  him,  or  that  Francis,  if 
driven  to  despair,  might,  as  he  threatened,  resign  his  crown 
to  the  dauphin,  agreed  to  abate  somewhat  of  his  former  de- 
mands. A  treaty  was  accordingly  concluded  at  Madrid,  (a.  d. 
1526,)  in  consequence  of  which  Francis  obtained  his  liberty. 
The  chief  article  in  this  treaty  was,  that  Burgundy  should  be 
restored  to  Charles  as  the  rightful  inheritance  of  his  ancestors, 
and  that  Francis's  two  eldest  sons  should  be  immediately  delivered 
up  as  hostages  for  the  performance  of  the  conditions  stipulated. 
The  exchange  of  the  captive  monarch  for  his  children  was  made 
on  the  frontiers  of  France  and  Spain.  And  the  moment  that 
Francis  entered  his  own  dominions,  he  mounted  a  Turkish  horse, 
and  putting  it  to  its  speed,  waved  his  hand,  and  cried  aloud 
several  times,  "I  am  yet  a  king !   I  am  yet  a  king !" 

The  reputation  of  the  French  monarch,  however,  would  have 
stood  in  a  fairer  light  had  he  died  a  captive  ;  for  the  unhappy 
situation  of  his  affairs,  delicate  as  his  notions  of  honour  appear 
to  have  been,  led  him  henceforth  to  act  a  part  very  disadvan- 
tageous to  his  moral  character.  He  never  meant  to  execute 
the  treaty  of  Madrid :  he  had  even  left  a  protest  in  the  hands 
of  notaries,  before  he  signed  it,  that  his  consent  should  be  con- 
sidered as  an  involuntary  deed,  and  be  deemed  null  and  void. 
Accordingly,  as  soon  as  he  arrived  in  France,  he  assembled  the 
states  of  Burgundy,  who  protested  against  the  article  relative 
to  their  province ;  and  when  the  imperial  ambassadors  urged 
the  immediate  execution  of  the  treaty,  the  king  replied  that  he 
would  rigorously  perform  the  articles  relative  to  himself,  but  in 
those  affecting  the  French  monarchy  he  must  be  directed  by  the 
sense  of  the  nation.  He  made  the  highest  acknowledgments 
to  the  king  of  England  for  his  friendly  interposition,  and 
offered  to  be  entirely  guided  by  his  counsels. 


84  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


DEATH  OF  BOURBON  AND  SACKING  OF  ROME. 


y 
A  HARLES  and  his  ministers  now  saw 

*j\  that  they  were  overreached  in  those 
very  arts  of  negotiation  in  which 
they  so  much  excelled,  while  the  Italian 
states  observed  with  pleasure  that  Francis 
was  resolved  to  evade  the  execution  of  a 
treaty  which  they  considered  as  dangerous 
to  the  liberties  of  Europe.  Clement  VII.  absolved  him  from 
the  oath  which  he  had  taken  at  Madrid;  and  the  kings  of 
France  and  England,  the  Pope,  the  Swiss,  the  Venetians,  the 
Florentines,  and  the  Milanese,  entered  into  an  alliance,  to 
which  they  gave  the  name  of  the  Holy  League,  because  his 
holiness  was  at  the  head  of  it,  in  order  to  oblige  the  emperor  to 
deliver  up  Francis's  two  sons  on  the  payment  of  a  reasonable 
ransom,  and  to  re-establish  Sforza  in  the  quiet  possession  of  the 
duchy  of  Milan. 

In  consequence  of  this  league,  the  confederate  army  took 
the  field,  and  Italy  became  once  more  the  scene  of  war.  But 
Francis,  who  it  was  expected  would  infuse  spirit  and  vigour 
into  the  whole  body,  had  gone  through  such  a  scene  of  distress 
that  he  was  become  diffident  of  his  talents  and  distrustful  of 
his  fortune.  He  had  flattered  himself  that  the  dread  alone  of 
such  a  confederacy  would  induce  Charles  to  listen  to  what  was 
equitable,  and  therefore  neglected  to  send  sufficient  reinforce- 
ments to  his  allies  in  Italy.  Meantime  the  duke  of  Bourbon, 
who  commanded  the  Imperialists,  overran  the  whole  duchy  of 
Milan,  of  which  the  emperor  had  promised  him  the  investiture ; 
and  his  troops  beginning  to  mutiny  for  want  of  pay,  he  boldly 
led  them  to  Rome,  (a.  d.  1527,)  in  spite  of  every  obstacle,  by 
offering  to  their  avidity  the  rich  spoils  of  that  ancient  capital. 
Nor  did  he  deceive  them :  for  although  he  himself  was  slain 


DEATH  OF  BOURBON  AND  SACKING  OF  ROME.  85 

while  encouraging  their  efforts  by  his  brave  example,  in  plant- 
ing with  his  own  hands  a  scaling-ladder  against  the  walls,  they, 
more  enraged  than  discouraged  by  that  misfortune,  mounted  to 
the  assault  with  the  greatest  ardour ;  and,  entering  the  city 
sword  in  hand,  pillaged  it  for  many  days,  and  made  it  a  scene 
of  horrid  carnage  and  abominable  lust. 

Never  did  Rome  experience  in  any  age  so  many  calamities, 
not  even  from  the  barbarians,  by  whom  she  was  successively 
subdued — from  the  followers  of  Alaric,  Genseric,  or  Odoacer, 
as  now  from  the  subjects  of  a  Christian  and  Catholic  monarch. 
Whatever  was  respectable  in  modesty  or  sacred  in  religion 
seemed  only  the  more  to  provoke  the  rage  of  the  soldiery. 
Virgins  suffered  violation  in  the  arms  of  their  mothers,  and 
upon  those  altars  to  which  they  had  fled  for  safety.  Venerable 
prelates,  after  being  exposed  to  every  indignity,  and  enduring  • 
every  torture,  were  thrown  into  dungeons,  and  menaced  with 
the  most  cruel  deaths,  in  order  to  make  them  reveal  their  se- 
cret treasures.  Clement  himself,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo,  was  obliged  to  surrender  at  discretion, 
and  found  that  his  sacred  character  could  neither  procure  him 
liberty  nor  respect.  He  was  doomed  to  close  confinement  until 
he  should  pay  an  enormous  ransom,  imposed  by  the  victorious 
army,  and  surrender  to  the  emperor  all  the  places  of  strength 
belonging  to  the  apostolic  see. 

Charles  received  the  news  of  this  extraordinary  event  with 
equal  surprise  and  pleasure  ;  but,  in  order  to  conceal  his  joy 
from  his  Spanish  subjects,  who  were  filled  with  horror  at  the 
insult  offered  to  the  sovereign  pontiff,  and  to  lessen  the  indig- 
nation of  the  other  powers  of  Europe,  he  expressed  the  deepest 
sorrow  for  the  success  of  his  arms.  He  put  himself  and  his 
whole  court  into  mourning,  stopped  the  rejoicings  for  the  birth 
of  his  son  Philip,  and  ordered  prayers  to  be  put  up  in  all  the 
churches  of  Spain  for  the  liberation  of  the  pope,  which  he 
could  immediately  have  procured  by  a  letter  to  his  generals. 

The  concern  expressed  by  Henry  and  Francis,  for  the  ca- 
lamity of  their  ally,  was  more  sincere.  Alarmed  at  the  progress 
of  the  Imperial  arms,  they  had,  even  before  the  sacking  of 
Rome,  entered  into  a  closer  alliance,  and  proposed  to  invade 
the  Low  Countries  with  a  powerful  army ;  but  no  sooner  did 
they  hear  of  Clement's  captivity  than  they  changed,  by  a  new 

H 


86 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


treaty,  the  scene  of  the  projected  war  from  the  Netherlands  to 
Italy,  and  resolved  to  take  the  most  vigorous  measures  for  re- 
storing his  holiness  to  liberty.  Henry,  however,  contributed 
only  money.  A  French  army  crossed  the  Alps,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Mareschal  Lautrec ;  Clement  obtained  his  freedom, 
and  war  was,  for  a  time,  carried  on  by  the  confederates  with 
success,  (a.  d.  1528.)  But  the  death  of  Lautrec,  and  the  re- 
volt of  Andrew  Doria,  a  celebrated  Genoese  admiral,  at  that 
time  in  the  service  of  France,  totally  changed  the  face  of  af- 
fairs. He  obliged  the  French  garrison  in  Genoa  to  surrender, 
and  restore  the  liberties  of  his  country.  The  French  army 
was  utterly  ruined  before  Naples ;  and  Francis,  discouraged, 
and  almost  exhausted  by  so  many  unsuccessful  enterprises, 
began  at  length  to  think  of  peace,  and  of  obtaining  the  release 
of  his  sons  by  concessions,  instead  of  the  terror  of  his  arms. 


EXPEDITIONS  AGAINST  THE  STATES  OF  BARBARY.  87 


EXPEDITIONS  OF  CHARLES  V.  AGAINST  THE 
STATES  OF  BARBARY. 

HILE  these  things  were  transacting,  Charles 
undertook  an  expedition  against  the  pirati- 
cal states  of  Africa.  Barbary,  or  that  part 
of  the  African  continent  which  lies  along 
the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  sea,  was 
then  nearly  in  the  same  condition  it  is  at 
present.  Morocco,  Algiers,  and  Tunis  were  its  principal  go- 
vernments ;  and  the  last  two  were  nests  of  pirates.  Barbarossa, 
a  famous  corsair,  had  succeeded  his  brother  in  the  kingdom  of 
Algiers,  which  he  formerly  assisted  him  to  usurp.  He  regu- 
lated with  much  prudence  the  interior  police  of  his  kingdom, 
carried  on  his  piracies  with  great  vigour,  and  extended  his  con- 
quests on  the  continent  of  Africa;  but  perceiving  that  the  natives 
submitted  to  his  government  with  impatience,  and  fearing  that 
his  continual  depredations  might  draw  upon  him  a  general  com- 
bination of  the  Christian  powers,  he  put  his  dominions  under 
the  protection  of  the  Turkish  emperor.  Solyman,  flattered  by 
such  an  act  of  submission,  and  charmed  by  the  boldness  of  the 
man,  offered  him  the  command  of  the  Ottoman  fleet.  Proud  of 
this  distinction,  Barbarossa  repaired  to  Constantinople,  and 
made  use  of  his  influence  with  his  sultan  to  extend  his  own  do- 
minions. Partly  by  force,  partly  by  treachery,  he  usurped  the 
kingdom  of  Tunis ;  and  being  now  possessed  of  greater  power, 
he  carried  on  his  depredations  against  the  Christian  states  with 
more  destructive  violence  than  ever. 

Daily  complaints  of  the  piracies  and  ravages  committed  by 
the  galleys  of  Barbarossa  were  brought  to  the  emperor  by  his 
subjects,  both  in  Spain  and  Italy ;  and  all  Christendom  seemed 
to  look  up  to  Charles,  as  its  greatest  and  most  fortunate  prince, 
for  relief  from  this  new  and  odious  species  of  oppression.     At 


88  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

the  same  time  Muley  Hascen,  the  exiled  king  of  Tunis,  finding 
none  of  the  African  princes  able  or  willing  to  support  him  in 
recovering  his  throne,  applied  to  the  victorious  Charles  for  as- 
sistance against  the  usurper.  Equally  desirous  of  delivering 
his  dominions  from  the  dangerous  neighbourhood  of  Barbarossa, 
of  appearing  as  the  protector  of  an  unfortunate  prince,  and  of 
acquiring  the  glory  annexed  in  that  age  to  every  expedition 
against  the  Mohammedans,  the  emperor  readily  concluded  a  treaty 
with  Muley  Hascen,  and  set  sail  for  Tunis  with  a  formidable 
armament. 

The  Goletta,  a  strong  fortress  on  an  island  in  the  bay  of 
Tunis,  and  the  key  of  the  capital,  planted  with  three  hundred 
pieces  of  cannon,  was  taken  by  storm,  (July  25,  1535,)  together 
with  all  Barbarossa's  fleet.  He  was  defeated  in  a  pitched  battle ; 
and  ten  thousand  Christian  slaves  having  knocked  off  their  fet- 
ters, and  made  themselves  masters  of  the  citadel,  Tunis  offered 
to  surrender  at  discretion.  But  while  Charles  was  deliberating 
on  the  means  of  preserving  the  lives  of  the  inhabitants,  his 
troops,  fearing  that  they  would  be  deprived  of  the  booty  which 
they  had  expected,  broke  suddenly  into  the  town  and  pillaged 
and  massacred  without  distinction.  Thirty  thousand  persons 
perished  by  the  sword,  and  ten  thousand  were  made  prisoners. 
The  sceptre,  drenched  in  blood,  was  restored  to  Muley  Hascen, 
on  condition  that  he  should  acknowledge  himself  a  vassal  of  the 
crown  of  Spain,  put  into  the  emperor's  hands  all  the  fortified 
seaports  in  the  kingdom  of  Tunis,  and  pay  annually  twelve 
thousand  crowns  for  the  subsistence  of  a  Spanish  garrison  in 
the  Goletta.  These  points  being  settled,  and  twenty  thousand 
Christian  slaves  freed  from  bondage,  either  by  arms  or  by  treaty, 
Charles  returned  to  Europe,  where  his  presence  was  become 
necessary ;  while  Barbarossa,  who  had  retired  to  Bona,  reco- 
vered new  strength,  and  again  became  the  tyrant  of  the  ocean. 

Algiers,  after  the  taking  of  Tunis,  became  the  common  recep- 
tacle of  all  the  Barbary  corsairs ;  and  from  the  time  that  Barba- 
rossa, as  captain-basha,  commanded  the  Turkish  fleet,  it  had 
been  governed  by  Hascen  Aga,  a  renegado  eunuch,  who  outdid, 
if  possible,  his  master  in  boldness  and  cruelty.  The  commerce 
of  the>  Mediterranean  was  greatly  interrupted  by  his  galleys ; 
and  such  frequent  alarms  were  given  to  the  coasts  of  Spain, 
that  there  was  a  necessity  for  erecting  watch-towers  at  certain 


EXPEDITIONS  AGAINST  THE  STATES  OF  BARBARY.  91 

distances,  and  of  keeping  a  guard  constantly  employed  in  order 
to  descry  the  approach  of  his  squadrons,  and  to  protect  the  in- 
habitants from  the  depredations  of  the  rapacious  ruffians  with 
which  they  were  manned. 

Charles,  before  he  left  Spain,  had  resolved  to  humble  this 
daring  corsair,  and  to  exterminate  the  lawless  crew  who  had  so 
long  infested  the  ocean.  With  this  view  he  had  ordered  a  fleet 
and  army  to  assemble  on  the  coast  of  Italy ;  and  although  the 
autumn  was  now  far  advanced,  he  obstinately  persisted  in  his 
purpose,  notwithstanding  the  remonstrances  of  Andrew  Doria, 
who  conjured  him  not  to  expose  so  noble  an  armament  to  almost 
inevitable  destruction,  by  venturing  at  so  late  a  season  to  ap- 
proach the  stormy  coast  of  Algiers.  Doria's  words  proved  pro- 
phetical. 

No  sooner  had  the  emperor  landed  in  Barbary,  (1541,)  than  a 
frightful  hurricane  arose,  scattered  his  fleet,  and  dashed  great 
part  of  it  in  pieces ;  while  he  and  his  land  forces  were  exposed 
to  all  the  fury  of  the  elements,  in  an  enemy's  country,  without 
a  hut  or  a  tent  to  shelter  them,  or  so  much  as  a  spot  of  firm 
ground  on  which  they  could  rest  their  wearied  bodies.  In  this 
calamitous  situation,  cold  and  wet,  they  continued  during  seve- 
ral days,  harassed  at  the  same  time  by  the  attacks  of  the  Alge- 
rines.  At  last,  Doria  happily  being  able  to  assemble  the  remains 
of  the  fleet,  Charles  was  glad  to  re-embark,  after  having  lost  the 
greater  part  of  his  army,  by  the  inclemency  of  the  weather, 
famine,  or  the  sword  of  the  enemy.  And  the  men  who  yet  sur- 
vived were  doomed  to  encounter  new  miseries  in  their  return ; 
the  fleet  being  scattered  by  a  fresh  storm,  and  the  ships  obliged 
to  take  shelter,  separately,  in  those  parts  of  Spain  or  Italy  they 
could  first  reach. 


92 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


HENRY    VIII. 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND. 


0  prince  had  ever  ascended  the  throne  of 
England  with  more  advantages  than  Henry 
VIII.  (a.  d.  1509.)  His  title  to  the  crown 
was  undisputed  ;  his  treasury  was  full ;  his 
subjects  were  in  tranquillity;  and  the  vigour 
_  and  comeliness  of  his  person,  his  freedom  of 
manner,  his  love  of  show,  and  his  dexterity 
in  every  manly  exercise,  rendered  his  accession  highly  popular, 
while  his  proficiency  in  literature  and  his  reputation  for  talents 
made  his  character  respectable.  Every  thing  seemed  to  prog- 
nosticate a  happy  and  prosperous  reign. 

He  had  been  affianced  during  his  father's  lifetime  to  the 
Infanta  Catharine,  his  brother's  widow ;  and,  notwithstanding 
some  scruples  on  that  step,  he  now  agreed  that  their  nuptials 
should  be  celebrated.  We  shall  afterwards  have  occasion  to 
observe  the  extraordinary  effects  of  this  marriage,  and  of  the 
king's  remorse,  either  real  or  pretended. 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.  93 

Some  princes  have  been  their  own  ministers,  but  almost  every- 
one has  had  either  a  minister  or  a  favourite :  Wolsey  was  both 
to  Henry.  Being  admitted  to  the  youthful  monarch's  plea- 
sures, he  took  the  lead  in  every  jovial  conversation,  and  pro- 
moted, notwithstanding  his  religious  habit,  all  that  frolic  and 
gayety  which  he  found  to  be  agreeable  to  the  age  and  inclina- 
tions of  the  king.  During  the  intervals  of  amusement,  he  in- 
troduced business  and  state  affairs,  and  insinuated  those  max- 
ims of  conduct  which  he  was  desirous  his  master  should  pursue. 
By  these  means  he  insensibly  acquired  that  absolute  ascendant 
over  Henry  which  distinguished  his  administration ;  and  the 
people  saw,  with  concern,  every  day  new  instances  of  his  uncon- 
trolled authority. 

The  duke  of  Buckingham,  lord  high  constable  of  England,  the 
first  nobleman  in  the  kingdom  both  in  family  and  fortune,  hav- 
ing wantonly  given  disgust  to  Wolsey,  soon  found  reason  to 
repent  his  imprudence.  He  was  descended  by  a  female  from 
the  duke  of  Gloucester,  youngest  son  of  Edward  III.,  and  being 
infatuated  with  judicial  astrology,  he  consulted  with  a  Carthu- 
sian friar,  named  Hopkins,  who  flattered  him  with  the  hope  of 
ascending  one  day  the  English  throne.  He  had  even  been  so 
unguarded  as  to  utter  some  expressions  against  the  king's  life. 
The  cardinal  made  these  the  grounds  of  an  impeachment ;  and 
although  Buckingham's  threats  seem  to  have  proceeded  more 
from  indiscretion  than  deliberate  malice,  he  was  brought  to 
trial,  condemned,  and  executed,  (a.  d.  1521.)  The  office  of 
high  constable,  which  this  nobleman  inherited  from  the  Bohuns, 
earls  of  Hereford,  being  forfeited  by  his  attainder,  was  never 
afterward  revived  in  England. 

The  next  memorable  event  in  the  domestic  history  of  this 
reign,  is  the  divorce  of  Queen  Catharine.  The  king's  scruples 
in  regard  to  the  lawfulness  of  his  marriage  increased  with  the 
decay  of  the  queen's  beauty.  She  had  borne  him  several  chil- 
dren, but  they  were  all  dead  except  the  princess  Mary  ;  and 
Henry  was  passionately  fond  of  male  issue.  He  consulted  his 
confessor,  the  bishop  of  Lincoln,  on  the  legality  of  marrying  a 
brother's  widow,  and  found  that  prelate  possessed  with  some 
doubts  and  difficulties.  He  next  proceeded  to  examine  the 
question  by  his  own  learning  and  study,  being  himself  a  great 
divine  and  casuist ;  and  having  had  recourse  to  the  works  of 


94  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

his  oracle,  Thomas  Aquinas,  he  discovered  that  this  celebrated 
doctor  had  expressly  declared  against  the  lawfulness  of  such 
marriages.  The  archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  now  applied  to, 
and  desired  to  consult  his  brethren.  All  the  prelates  in  Eng- 
land, except  Fisher,  bishop  of  Rochester,  unanimously  declared 
under  their  hand  and  seal,  that  they  deemed  the  king's  marriage 
unlawful,  (a.  d.  1527.)  Wolsey  also  fortified  his  master's 
scruples,  and  the  bright  eyes  of  Anne  Boleyn,  maid  of  ho- 
nour to  the  queen,  carried  home  every  argument  to  the  heart  of 
Henry  more  forcibly  than  even  the  suggestions  of  that  powerful 
favourite. 

This  young  lady  was  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Boleyn,  who  had 
been  employed  by  Henry  in  several  embassies,  and  was  allied 
to  all  the  chief  nobility  in  the  kingdom.  She  had  been  carried 
over  to  Paris  in  early  youth,  by  the  king's  sister,  when  espoused 
to  Louis  XII.  of  France;  and  the  graces  of  her  mind,  no  less 
than  the  beauty  of  her  person,  had  distinguished  her  even  in 
that  polished  court.  The  time  at  which  she  returned  to  Eng- 
land is  not  certainly  known  ;  but  it  appears  to  have  been  after 
the  king  had  entertained  doubts  concerning  the  lawfulness  of 
his  marriage.  She  immediately  caught  the  roving  and  amorous 
eye  of  Henry ;  and  as  her  virtue  and  modesty  left  him  no  hope 
of  licentious  indulgences,  he  resolved  to  raise  her  to  the  throne, 
which  her  accomplishments,  both  natural  and  acquired,  seemed 
equally  fitted  to  adorn. 

But  many  bars  were  yet  in  the  way  of  Henry's  wishes.  It 
was  not  only  necessary  to  obtain  a  divorce  from  the  pope,  but  a 
revocation  of  the  bull  which  had  been  granted  for  his  marriage 
with  Catharine,  before  he  could  marry  Anne :  and  he  had  to 
combat  all  the  interest  of  the  emperor,  whose  aunt  he  was  going 
to  degrade.  The  king  of  England,  however,  did  not  despair  of 
success.  He  was  in  high  favour  with  the  court  of  Rome,  and 
he  deserved  to  be  so.  He  had  not  only  opposed  the  progress 
of  the  Lutheran  tenets,  by  all  the  influence  which  his  extensive 
and  almost  absolute  authority  conferred  upon  him,  but  he  had 
even  written  a  book  against  them :  a  performance  in  itself  not 
contemptible,  and  which  gave  so  much  pleasure  to  Leo  X.  that 
he  conferred  upon  Henry  the  title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith. 
Sensible,  therefore,  of  his  importance,  as  the  chief  pillar  of  the 
church,  at  a  time  when  it  stood  in  much  need  of  support,  he 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.  97 

confidently  applied  to  Clement  VII.,  the  reigning  pontiff,  for  a 
dissolution  of  his  marriage  with  Catharine. 

The  pope  seemed  at  first  favourable  to  Henry's  inclinations  ; 
but  his  dread  of  displeasing  the  emperor,  whose  prisoner  he  had 
lately  been,  prevented  him  from  coming  to  any  fixed  determina- 
tion, (a.  d.  1529.)  He  at  last,  however,  empowered  Campeggio 
and  Wolsey,  his  two  legates  in  England,  to  try  the  validity  of 
the  king's  marriage.  They  accordingly  opened  their  court  at 
London,  and  proceeded  to  the  examination  of  the  matter.  The 
first  point  which  came  before  them,  and  that  which  Henry 
wanted  chiefly  to  establish,  was  Arthur's  consummation  of  his 
marriage  with  Catharine ;  and  although  the  queen  protested 
that  her  virgin  honour  was  yet  untainted  when  the  king  received 
her  into  his  bed,  and  even  appealed  to  his  grace  (the  title  then 
taken  by  English  kings)  for  the  truth  of  her  asseveration,  stronger 
proofs  than  were  produced  could  not  be  expected  of  such  a  fact, 
after  so  long  an  interval.  But  when  the  business  seemed  draw- 
ing to  a  close,  and  while  Henry  was  in  anxious  expectation  of 
a  sentence  in  his  favour,  all  his  hopes  were  suddenly  blasted. 
Campeggio,  on  the  most  frivolous  pretences,  prorogued  the 
court ;  and  Clement,  at  the  intercession  of  the  emperor,  revoked 
the  cause  soon  after  to  Rome. 

This  finesse  occasioned  the  fall  of  Wolsey.  Anne  Boleyn 
imputed  to  him  the  failure  of  her  expectations,  and  Henry,  who 
entertained  the  highest  opinion  of  the  cardinal's  capacity, 
ascribed  his  miscarriage  in  the  present  undertaking,  not  to 
misfortune  or  mistake,  but  to  the  malignity  or  infidelity  of  that 
minister.  The  great  seal  was  taken  from  him,  and  given  to  Sir 
Thomas  More,  a  man  of  learning,  virtue,  and  capacity.  He 
was  indicted  in  the  Star-Chamber ;  his  lands  and  goods  were 
declared  forfeited ;  his  houses  and  furniture  were  seized ;  he 
was  pronounced  without  the  protection  of  the  laws,  and  his  per- 
son liable  to  be  committed  to  custody.  The  king's  heart,  how- 
ever, relented,  and  the  prosecution  was  carried  no  farther  ;  but 
the  cardinal  was  ordered  to  remove  from  court,  and  his  final 
ruin  was  hanging  over  him. 

The  parliament  laid  hold  of  the  present  opportunity  to  pass 
several  bills,  restraining  the  impositions  of  the  clergy  ;  and 
Henry  was  not  displeased  that  the  pope  and  his  whole  militia 
should  be-  made  sensible  of  their  dependence  upon  him,  and  of 

13  I 


98  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

the  willingness  of  his  subjects,  if  he  was  so  disposed,  to  reduce 
the  power  and  privileges  of  ecclesiastics.  Amid  the  anxieties 
with  which  he  was  agitated,  he  was  often  tempted  to  break  off 
all  connection  with  Rome  :  and  Anne  Boleyn  used  every  in- 
sinuation, in  order  to  make  him  proceed  to  extremities  with 
Clement ;  both  as  the  readiest  and  surest  means  of  her  exalta- 
tion to  the  royal  dignity,  and  of  spreading  the  new  doctrines, 
in  which  she  had  been  initiated  under  the  duchess  of  Alenc,on, 
a  warm  friend  to  the  Reformation.  But  Henry,  notwithstand- 
ing these  inducements,  had  still  many  reasons  to  desire  a  good 
agreement  with  the  sovereign  pontiff.  Having  been  educated 
in  a  superstitious  veneration  for  the  holy  see,  he  dreaded  the 
reproach  of  heresy ;  and  he  abhorred  all  alliance  with  the  Lu- 
therans, the  chief  opponents  of  the  papal  power,  because 
Luther,  their  apostle,  had  handled  him  roughly,  in  an  answei 
to  his  book  in  defence  of  the  Romish  communion. 

While  Henry  was  fluctuating  between  these  contrary  opi- 
nions, two  of  his  courtiers  fell  accidentally,  one  evening,  into 
company  with  Dr.  Thomas  Cranmer,  fellow  of  Jesus  College,  in 
Cambridge,  a  man  distinguished  by  his  learning,  but  still  more 
by  his  candour  ;  and,  as  the  affair  of  the  divorce  became  the 
subject  of  conversation,  he  observed,  that  the  best  way,  either 
to  quiet  the  king's  conscience  or  obtain  the  pope's  consent, 
would  be  to  consult  all  the  universities  in  Europe  with  regard 
to  that  controverted  point,  (a.  d.  1530.)  When  Henry  was 
informed  of  this  proposal,  he  was  delighted  with  it,  and  swore 
with  great  violence,  "  By  God  !  Cranmer  has  got  the  right  sow 
by  the  ear."  The  doctor  was  immediately  sent  for,  and  taken 
into  favour,  the  universities  were  consulted,  according  to  his 
advice,  and  all  of  them  declared  the  king's  marriage  invalid. 

Clement,  however,  lying  still  under  the  influence  of  the  em- 
peror, continued  inflexible  ;  and,  as  Henry  was  sensible  that 
the  extremities  to  which  he  was  pushed,  both  against  the  pope 
and  the  ecclesiastical  order,  must  be  disagreeable  to  Wolsey, 
whose  opposition  he  dreaded,  he  renewed  the  prosecution  against 
his  ancient  favourite. 

The  cardinal,  after  his  disgrace,  had  remained  for  some  time 
at  Richmond  ;  but,  being  ordered  to  remove  to  his  see  of  York, 
he  took  up  his  residence  at  Cawood,  in  Yorkshire,  where  he 
rendered  himself  extremely  popular  in  the  neighbourhood  by 


THE  REFORMATION  UN  ENGLAND.  99 

his  affability  and  hospitality.  In  this  retreat  he  lived,  when 
the  earl  of  Northumberland  received  orders  to  arrest  him  for 
high  treason,  and  conduct  him  to  London  as  a  prelude  to  his 
trial.  On  his  journey  he  was  seized  with  a  disorder,  which 
turned  into  a  dysentery ;  and  it  was  with  much  difficulty  that 
he  was  able  to  reach  Leicester  abbey.  «  I  am  come  to  lay  my 
bones  among  you,"  said  Wolsey  to  the  abbot  and'  monks,  who 
came  out  to  receive  him :  and  he  immediately  took  to  his  bed, 
whence  he  never  rose  more.  «  Oh !  had  I  but  served  my 
God,"  cried  he,  a  little  before  he  expired,  "as  diligently  as  I 
have  served  my  king,  he  would  not  have  deserted  me  in  my 
gray  hairs."  His  treason,  indeed,  seems  rather  to  have  been 
against  the  people  than  the  prince,  or  even  the  state ;  for  al- 
though the  violence  and  obstinacy  of  Henry's  character  ought 
perhaps  to  apologize  for  many  of  the  cardinal's  public  measures, 
his  continued  extortions  upon  the  subject,  by  the  most  iniqui- 
tous methods,  in  what  he  called  his  Legantine  court,  admit  of 
no  alleviation. 

Thus  freed  from  a  person  whom  he  considered  as  an  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  his  inclinations,  and  supported  by  the  opinion 
of  the  learned  in  the  step  which  he  intended  to  take,  Henry 
ordered  a  parliament,  together  with  a  convocation,  to  meet ;  in 
which  he  was  acknowledged  "  the  Protector  and  supreme  Head 
of  the  Church  and  Clergy  of  England."  (a.  d.  1531.)  And 
being  now  fully  determined  in  his  own  mind  relative  to  a  matter 
which  had  long  engaged  his  thoughts,  and  resolved  to  adminis- 
ter ecclesiastical  affairs  without  having  farther  recourse  to 
Rome,  (a.  d.  1532,)  as  well  as  to  abide  all  consequences,  he 
privately  celebrated  his  marriage  with  Anne  Boleyn,  whom  he 
had  previously  created  marchioness  of  Pembroke. 

Cranmer,  now  become  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  annulled 
soon  after  the  king's  marriage  with  Catharine,  (a  step  which 
ought  to  have  preceded  his  second  nuptials,)  and  ratified  that 
with  Anne,  who  was  publicly  crowned  queen,  with  all  the  pomp 
and  dignity  suited  to  such  a  ceremony.  And,  to  complete  the 
satisfaction  of  Henry  on  the  conclusion  of  this  troublesome 
business,  the  queen  was  safely  delivered  of  a  daughter,  (a.  d. 
1533,)  who  received  the  name  of  Elizabeth,  and  whom  we  shall 
afterwards  see  swaying  the  English  sceptre  with  equal  glory  to 
herself  and  happiness  to  her  people. 


100  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

When  intelligence  was  conveyed  to  Rome  of  these  transac- 
tions, the  conclave  was  all  in  a  rage,  and  the  pope  was  urged 
by  the  cardinals  of  the  imperial  faction  to  dart  his  spiritual 
thunders  against  Henry.  But  Clement  was  still  unwilling  to 
proceed  to  extremities  :  he  only  declared  Cranmer's  sentence 
null,  and  threatened  the  king  with  excommunication,  if  he  did 
not  put  things  in  their  former  condition,  before  a  day  named. 
In  the  mean  time  Henry  was  prevailed  upon,  by  the  mediation 
of  the  king  of  France,  to  submit  his  cause  to  the  Roman  con- 
sistory, provided  the  cardinals  of  the  Imperial  faction  were  ex- 
cluded from  it.  The  pope  consented,  and  promised  that,  if  the 
king  would  sign  a  written  agreement  to  this  purpose,  his  de- 
mands should  be  fully  complied  with.  But  on  what  slight  inci- 
dents often  depend  the  greatest  events  !  The  courier  appointed 
to  carry  the  king's  written  promise  was  detained  beyond  the 
day  fixed ;  news  arrived  at  Rome  that  a  libel  had  been  pub- 
lished in  London  against  the  holy  see,  and  a  farce  acted  before 
the  king  in  derision  of  the  apostolic  body.  The  pope  and  cardinals 
entered  into  the  consistory  inflamed  with  rage ;  the  marriage 
between  Henry  and  Catharine  was  pronounced  valid  ;  the  king 
was  declared  excommunicated  if  he  refused  to  adhere  to  it,  and 
the  rupture  with  England  was  rendered  final. 

The  English  parliament,  assembled  soon  after  this  decision 
of  the  court  of  Rome,  (a.  d.  1534,)  conferred  on  the  king  the 
title  of  "  The  only  supreme  Head  of  the  Church  of  England 
upon  Earth,"  as  they  had  already  invested  him  with  all  the 
real  power  belonging  to  it ;  a  measure  of  the  utmost  conse- 
quence to  the  kingdom,  whether  considered  in  a  civil  or  eccle- 
siastical view,  and  which  forms  a  memorable  era  in  their  consti- 
tution. The  legislature,  by  thus  acknowledging  the  king's 
supremacy  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  uniting  the  spiritual 
with  the  civil  power,  introduced  greater  simplicity  into  govern- 
ment, and  prevented  all  future  disputes  about  the  limits  of  con- 
tending jurisdictions.  A  door  was  also  opened  for  checking 
the  exorbitances  of  superstition,  and  breaking  those  shackles 
by  which  human  reason,  policy,  and  industry  had  so  long  been 
circumscribed  ;  for,  as  a  profound  historian  has  justly  observed, 
the  prince,  being  head  of  the  religious  as  well  as  of  the  tem- 
poral jurisdiction  of  the  kingdom,  though  he  might  sometimes 
be  tempted  to  employ  the  former  as  an  engine  of  government, 


101 


12 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.  103 

could  have  no  interest,  like  the  Roman  pontiff,  in  encouraging 
its  usurpations. 

But  England,  though  thus  happily  released  from  the  oppres- 
sive jurisdiction  of  the  pope,  was  far  from  enjoying  religious 
freedom.  Liberty  of  conscience  was,  if  possible,  more  confined 
than  ever.  Henry  not  only  retained  his  aversion  against  Lu- 
ther and  his  doctrines,  but  so  many  of  his  early  prejudices 
hung  about  him,  that  the  idea  of  heresy  still  filled  him  with 
horror.  Separate  as  he  stood  from  the  Catholic  church,  he 
continued  to  value  himself  on  maintaining  its  dogmas,  and  on 
guarding  with  fire  and  sword  the  imaginary  purity  of  his  specu- 
lative opinions.  All  who  denied  the  king's  supremacy,  the 
legitimacy  of  his  daughter  Elizabeth,  or  who  embraced  the 
tenets  of  the  reformers,  were  equally  the  objects  of  his  ven- 
geance. Among  the  latter  were  many  unhappy  persons,  who 
had  greedily  imbibed  the  Lutheran  doctrines,  during  Henry's 
quarrel  with  Rome,  in  hopes  of  a  total  change  of  worship,  and 
who,  having  gone  too  far  to  recede,  fell  martyrs  to  their  npw 
faith.  Among  the  former  were  Fisher,  bishop  of  Rochester, 
and  Sir  Thomas  More,  late  chancellor,  who  refused  to  acknow- 
ledge the  king's  supremacy,  and  died  upon  the  scaffold  with 
heroic  constancy,  (a.  d.  1535.)  More,  who  was  a  man  of  a 
gay  humour,  retained  even  his  facetiousness  to  the  last.  When 
he  laid  his  head  on  the  block,  and  saw  the  executioner  ready 
with  his  weapon,  "  Stay,  friend,"  said  he,  "  till  I  put  aside  my 
beard;  for,"  added  he,  "it  never  committed  treason."  What 
pity,  and  what  an  instance  of  the  inconsistency  of  human  na- 
ture, that  the  man  who  could  make  a  jest  of  death,  should 
make  a  matter  of  conscience  of  the  pope's  supremacy ! 

Although  Henry  thus  punished  both  Protestants  and  Catho- 
lics, his  most  dangerous  enemies,  he  was  sensible,  were  the 
zealous  adherents  to  the  ancient  religion,  and  more  especially 
the  monks,  who,  having  their  immediate  dependence  on  the 
Roman  pontiff,  apprehended  their  own  ruin  to  be  the  certain 
consequence  of  abolishing  his  authority  in  England.  The  king 
therefore  determined  to  suppress  the  monasteries,  as  so  many 
nurseries  of  rebellion,  as  well  as  of  idleness,  superstition,  and 
folly,  and  to  put  himself  in  possession  of  their  ample  revenues. 
In  order  to  effectuate  this  robbery  with  some  colour  of  justice, 
he  appointed  commissioners  to  visit  all  religious  houses ;  and 


104 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


these  men,  acquainted  with  the  king's  design,  brought  reports, 
whether  true  or  false,  of  such  frightful  disorders,  lewdness, 
ignorance,  priestcraft,  and  unnatural  lusts,  as  filled  the  nation 
with  horror  against  institutions  held  sacred  by  their  ancestors, 
and  lately  objects  of  the  most  profound  veneration.  The  lesser 
monasteries,  said  to  have  been  the  most  corrupted,  to  the  num- 
ber of  three  hundred  and  seventy-six,  were  at  once  suppressed 
by  parliament,  (a.  d.  1536 ;)  and  their  revenues,  goods,  chat- 
tels, and  plate  were  granted  to  the  king. 


LADY     JANE     GREY. 


14 


ACCESSION  OF  EDWARD  VI. 


107 


THE  CROWN  OFFERED  TO  LADY  JANE  GREY. 


ACCESSION  OF  EDWARD  VI. 


ENRY  VIII.  died  January  28,  1547,  leav- 
ing the  throne  to  his  only  son,  a  boy  of 
ten  years  of  age,  who  was  immediately 
proclaimed  king  under  the  title  of  Ed- 
ward VI.  The  duke  of  Somerset,  ma- 
ternal uncle  to  the  young  king,  became 
supreme  ruler,  under  the  title  of  Protector,  and  continued  to 
maintain  the  Protestant  doctrines.  Under  this  reign,  the  church 
of  England  assumed  its  present  form,  and  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  was  composed  nearly  as  it  now  exists.  Somerset  being 
resolved  to  effect,  if  possible,  the  match  between  Edward  VI. 
and  Mary  of  Scotland,  invaded  that  country  in  autumn  1547, 
and  met  was  at  Musselburgh  by  a  large  army  under  the  gover- 
nor, the  earl  of  Arran.  Though  the  Scotch  were  animated  by 
bitter  animosity  against  the  English,  against  their  religion,  and 
against  the  object  of  their  expedition,  they  did  not  fight  with 
their  usual  resolution,  but  were  defeated,  and  pursued  with  great 
slaughter.  Finding  them  still  obstinate  in  refusing  to  give  up 
their  queen,  Somerset  laid  waste  a  great  part  of  the  country, 
and  then  retired.  Previous  to  this  period,  Cardinal  Beaton  had 
been  assassinated  by  private  enemies :  but  the  Scotch  were  en- 
couraged to  persevere  by  the  court  of  France,  to  which  they 
now  sent  the  young  queen  for  protection. 


108  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  the  government  was  conducted 
mildly,  until  the  protector  Somerset  was  degraded  from  his 
authority  by  the  rising  influence  of  Dudley,  duke  of  Northum- 
berland, who  caused  him  soon  after  to  be  tried  and  executed. 
Northumberland,  who  was  secretly  a  Roman  Catholic,  was  not 
so  mild  or  popular  a  ruler.  Yet  throughout  the  whole  reign  of 
Edward  VI.,  which  was  terminated  by  his  death  on  the  6th  of 
July,  1553,  at  the  early  age  of  sixteen,  no  religious  party  was 
persecuted,  except  those  who  denied  the  fundamental  doctrines 
of  the  Christian  religion.  It  would  have  been  well  for  the  ho- 
nour of  a  church  which  has  produced  many  great  men,  and  to 
which  the  modern  world  is  indebted  for  the  very  existence  of 
Christianity,  if  it  had  not  been  tempted  after  this  period  to  com- 
mence a  very  different  course  of  action.  The  crown  now  be- 
longed by  birthright  to  Mary,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Henry 
VIII.,  who  was  a  zealous  Catholic.  Northumberland,  however, 
assuming  the  illegitimacy  of  that  princess  and  her  sister  Eliza- 
beth, set  up  as  queen  the  Lady  Jane  Grey,  who  was  descended 
from  a  younger  sister  of  king  Henry,  and  who  had  been  mar- 
ried to  a  son  of  the  duke  of  Northumberland.  Lady  Jane  was 
the  most  beautiful,  most  intelligent,  and  most  amiable  of  all  the 
females  who  appear  in  the  history  of  England.  Though  only 
seventeen,  she  was  deeply  learned,  and  yet  preserved  all  the 
unaffected  graces  of  character  proper  to  her  interesting  age. 
Unfortunately,  her  father-in-law  Northumberland  was  so  much 
disliked  that  the  Catholics  were  enabled  to  displace  her  from 
the  throne  in  eight  days,  and  set  up  in  her  stead  the  princess 
Mary.  Northumberland,  Lady  Jane,  and  her  husband,  Guilford 
Lord  Dudley,  were  all  beheaded  by  that  savage  princess,  who 
soon  after  took  steps  for  restoring  the  Catholic  religion,  and 
married  Philip  II.,  king  of  Spain,  in  order  to  strengthen  her- 
self against  the  Protestant  interest.  Mary  experienced  some 
resistance  from  her  Protestant  subjects,  and  being  under  great 
suspicion  of  her  sister  Elizabeth,  who  professed  the  reformed 
faith,  but  took  no  part  against  her,  was  almost  on  the  point  of 
ordering  her  to  execution  also.  As  soon  as  she  had  replaced  the 
Catholic  system,  and  found  herself  in  possession  of  sufficient 
power,  she  began  that  career  of  persecution  which  has  rendered 
her  name  so  infamous. 


GARDINER. 


PERSECUTIONS  IN  QUEEN  MARY'S  REIGN. 


Ill 


PERSECUTIONS  OF  THE  PROTESTANTS  IN 
QUEEN  MARY'S  REIGN. 


N  consequence  of  her  reconciliation  with 
the  see  of  Rome,  Mary  had  recourse  to 
the  punishment  by  fire,  that  frightful 
expedient  of  superstition,  for  extend- 
ing her  empire,  and  preserving  her  do- 
minion. The  mild  counsels  of  Cardinal 
Pole,  who  was  inclined  to  toleration, 
were  overruled  by  Gardiner  and  Bon- 
ner, and  many  persons  of  all  conditions, 
ages,  and  sexes  were  committed  to  the 
flaines.  The  persecutors  made  their  first  attack  upon  Rogers, 
prebendary  of  St.  Paul's ;  a  man  equally  distinguished  by  his 
piety  and  learning,  but  whose  domestic  situation,  it  was  hoped, 
would  bring  him  to  compliance.  He  had  a  wife,  whom  he  ten- 
derly loved,  and  ten  children ;  yet  did  he  continue  firm  in  his 
principles,  and  such  was  his  serenity  after  condemnation,  that 
the  jailers,  it  is  said,  waked  him  from  a  sound  sleep,  when  the 
hour  of  his  execution  approached.  He  suffered  in  Smithfield, 
(a.  d.  1555.)  Hooper,  bishop  of  Gloucester,  was  condemned  at 
the  same  time  with  Rogers,  but  sent  to  his  own  diocese  to  be 
punished,  in  order  to  strike  the  greater  terror  into  his  flock. 
The  constancy  of  his  death,  however,  had  a  very  contrary  effect. 
It  was  a  scene  of  consolation  to  Hooper  to  die  in  their  sight, 
bearing  testimony  to  that  doctrine  which  he  had  formerly  taught 
among  them.  He  continued  to  exhort  them,  till  his  tongue, 
swollen  by  the  violence  of  his  agony,  denied  him  utterance :  and 
his  words  were  long  remembered. 

Ferrar,  bishop  of  St.  David's,  also  suffered  this  terrible  pun- 
ishment in  his  own  diocese.  And  Ridley,  bishop  of  London, 
and  Latimer,  formerly  bishop  of  Worcester,  two  prelates,  vene- 


112  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

rable  by  their  years,  their  learning,  and  their  piety,  perished 
together  in  the  same  fire  at  Oxford,  supporting  each  other's 
constancy  by  their  mutual  exhortations.  Latimer,  when  tied  to 
the  stake,  called  to  his  companion,  "Be  of  good  cheer,  my 
brother  !  we  shall  this  day  kindle  such  a  flame  in  England,  as, 
I  trust  in  God,  will  never  be  extinguished." 

Sanders,  a  respectable  clergyman,  was  committed  to  the  flames 
at  Coventry.  A  pardon  was  offered  him  if  he  would  recant ; 
but  he  rejected  it  with  disdain,  and  embraced  the  stake,  saying, 
"Welcome,  cross  of  Christ!  welcome,  everlasting  life  !"  Cran- 
mer  had  less  courage  at  first.  Overawed  by  the  prospect  of 
those  tortures  which  awaited  him,  or  overcome  by  the  fond  love 
of  life,  and  by  the  flattery  of  artful  men,  who  p.ompously  repre- 
sented the  dignities  to  which  his  character  still  entitled  him,  if 
he  would  merit  them  by  a  recantation,  lie  agreed,  in  an  unguarded 
hour,  to  subscribe  to  the  doctrines  of  the  papal  supremacy  and 
the  real  presence.  But  Mary  and  her  council,  no  less  perfidious 
than  cruel,  determined  that  this  recantation  should  avail  him 
nothing ;  that  he  should  acknowledge  his  errors  in  the  church 
before  the  people,  and  afterward  be  led  to  execution.  Whether 
Cranmer  received  secret  intelligence  of  their  design,  or  repented 
of  his  weakness,  or  both,  is  uncertain ;  but  he  surprised  the 
audience  by  a  declaration  very- different  from  that  which  was 
expected  from  him.  After  explaining  his  sense  of  what  he 
owed  to  God  and  his  sovereign,  "There  is  one  miscarriage  in 
my  life,"  said  he,  "of  which,  above  all  others,  I  severely  repent 
— the  insincere  declaration  of  faith  to  which  I  had  the  weakness 
to  subscribe;  but  I  take  this  opportunity  of  atoning  for  my 
error  by  a  sincere  and  open  recantation,  and  am  willing  to  seal 
with  my  blood  that  doctrine  which  I  firmly  believe  to  have  been 
communicated  from  Heaven."     (a.  d.  1556.) 

As  his  hand,  he  added,  had  erred,  by  betraying  his  heart,  it 
should  first  be  punished  by  a  severe  but  just  doom.  He  accord- 
ingly stretched  out  his  arm,  as  soon  as  he  came  to  the  stake,  to 
which  he  was  instantly  led,  and  without  discovering,  either  by 
his  looks  or  motions,  the  least  sign  of  compunction,  or  even  of 
feeling,  he  held  his  right  hand  in  the  flames  till  it  was  utterly 
consumed.  His  thoughts  appeared  to  be  totally  occupied  in  re- 
flecting on  his  former  fault ;  and  he  called  aloud  several  times, 
"This  hand  has  offended  !"    When  it  dropped  off  he  discovered 


queen  maey.    From  a  Painting  by  Holbein. 


IS 


K2 


PERSECUTIONS  IN  QUEEN  MARY'S  REIGN.  H7 

a  serenity  in  his  countenance,  as  if  satisfied  with  sacrificing  to 
divine  justice  the  instrument  of  his  crime ;  and  when  the  fire 
attacked  his  body,  his  soul,  wholly  collected  within  itself,  seemed 
fortified  against  every  external  accident,  and  altogether  inacces- 
sible to  pain. 

It  would  be  endless  to  enumerate  all  the  cruelties  practised 
in  England  during  this  bigoted  reign,  near  three  hundred  per- 
sons having  been  brought  to  the  stake  in  the  first  rage  of  per- 
secution. Besides,  the  savage  barbarity  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  patient  constancy  on  the  other,  are  so  similar  in  all  those 
martyrdoms,  that  a  narration,  very  little  agreeable  in  itself, 
would  become  altogether  disgusting  by  its  uniformity.  It  is 
sufficient  to  have  mentioned  the  sufferings  of  the  most  eminent  re- 
formers, whose  character  and  condition  make  such  notice  neces- 
sary. We  shall  therefore  conclude  this  subject  with  observing, 
that  human  nature  appears  on  no  occasion  so  detestable,  and  at 
the  same  time  so  absurd,  as  in  these  religious  horrors,  which  sink 
mankind  below  infernal  spirits  in  wickedness,  and  beneath  the 
brutes  in  folly.  Bishop  Bonner  seemed  to  rejoice  in  the  tor- 
ments of  the  victims  of  persecution.  He  sometimes  whipped 
the  Protestant  prisoners  with  his  own  hands,  till  he  was  tired 
with  the  violence  of  the  exercise :  he  tore  out  the  beard  of  a 
weaver,  who  refused  to  relinquish  his  religion  ;  and,  in  order  to 
give  the  obstinate  heretic  a  more  sensible  idea  of  burning,  he 
held  his  finger  to  the  candle,  till  the  sinews  and  veins  shrunk  and 
burst.  All  these  examples  prove  that  no  human  depravity  can 
equal  revenge  and  cruelty,  inflamed  by  theological  hate. 


118 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 


CHARLES    V.   AND   TUREIANO    SURPRISING    THE   MONKS  WITH   THEIR  CURIOUS   PUPPETS. 


RESIGNATION  OF  CHARLES  V. 


IN  the  year  1556,  an  event  happened  which  asto- 
nished all  Europe,  and  confounded  the  reasonings 
of  the  wisest  politicians.  The  emperor  Charles  V., 
though  no  more  than  fifty-six,  an  age  when  ob- 
jects of  ambition  operate  with  full  force  on  the 
mind,  and  are  generally  pursued  with  the  great- 
est ardour,  had  for  some  time  formed  the  resolu- 
tion of  resigning  his  hereditary  dominions  to  his 
son  Philip.  He  now  determined  to  put  it  in  execution.  Va- 
rious have  been  the  opinions  of  historians  concerning  a  resolu- 
tion so  singular  and  unexpected  ;  but  the  most  probable  seem  to 
be,  the  disappointments  which  Charles  had  met  with  in  his  am- 
bitious hopes,  and  the  daily  decline  of  his  health.  He  had 
early  in  life  been  attacked  with  the  gout ;  and  the  fits  were 
now  become  so  frequent  and  severe,  that  not  only  the  vigour 
of  his  constitution  was  broken,  but   the  faculties  of  his  mind 


RESIGNATION  OF  CHARLES  V.  H9 

were  sensibly  impaired.  He,  therefore,  judged  it  more  decent 
to  conceal  his  infirmities  in  some  solitude,  than  to  expose  them 
any  longer  to  the  public  eye  :  and,  as  he  was  unwilling  to  for- 
feit the  fame  or  lose  the  acquisitions  of  his  better  years,  by 
attempting  to  guide  the  reins  of  government  when  he  was  no 
longer  able  to  hold  them  with  steadiness,  he  prudently  deter- 
mined to  seek,  in  the  tranquillity  of  retirement,  that  happiness 
which  he  had  in  vain  pursued  amid  the  tumults  of  war  and  the 
intrigues  of  state. 

In  consequence  of  this  resolution,  Charles,  who  had  already 
ceded  to  his  son  Philip  the  kingdom  of  Naples  and  the  duchy 
of  Milan,  assembled  the  states  of  the  Low  Countries  at  Brus- 
sels; and  seating  himself,  for  the  last  time,  in  the  chair  of 
state,  he  explained  to  his  subjects  the  reasons  of  his  resigna- 
tion, and  solemnly  devolved  his  authority  upon  Philip.  He  re- 
counted with  dignity,  but  without  ostentation,  all  the  great  things 
which  he  had  undertaken  and  performed  since  the  commencement 
of  his  administration  :  and  that  enumeration  gives  us  the  highest 
idea  of  his  activity  and  industry.  "  I  have  dedicated,"  observed 
he,  "  from  the  seventeenth  year  of  my  age,  all  my  thoughts  and 
attention  to  public  objects,  reserving  no  portion  of  my  time  for 
the  indulgence  of  ease,  and  very  little  for  the  enjoyment  of 
private  pleasure.  Either  in  a  pacific  or  hostile  manner,  I  have 
visited  Germany  nine  times  ;  Spain  six  times ;  France  four 
times  ;  Italy  seven  times ;  the  Low  Countries  ten  times  ;  Eng- 
land twice ;  Africa  as  often ;  and,  while  my  health  permitted 
me  to  discharge  the  duties  of  a  sovereign,  and  the  vigour  of  my 
constitution  was  equal  in  any  degree  to  the  arduous  office  of 
governing  such  extensive  dominions,  I  never  shunned  labour, 
nor  repined  under  fatigue ;  but  now,  when  my  health  is  broken, 
and  my  vigour  exhausted  by  the  rage  of  an  incurable  distem- 
per, my  growing  infirmities  admonish  me  to  retire  ;  nor  am  I 
so  fond  of  reigning  as  to  retain  the  sceptre  in  an  impotent  hand, 
which  is  no  longer  able  to  protect  my  subjects. 

"  Instead  of  a  sovereign  worn  out  with  diseases,"  continued 
he,  «  and  scarce  half  alive,  I  give  you  one  in  the  prime  of  life, 
already  accustomed  to  govern,  and  who  adds  to  the  vigour  of 
youth  all  the  attention  and  sagacity  of  maturer  years."  Then 
turning  towards  Philip,  who  fell  on  his  knees  and  kissed  his 
father's  hand,  "It  is  in  your  power,"  said  Charles,  "by  a  wise 


120 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


and  virtuous  administration,  to  justify  the  extraordinary  proof 
which  I  give  this  day  of  my  paternal  affection,  and  to  demon- 
strate that  you  are  worthy  of  the  confidence  which  I  repose  in 
you.  Preserve,"  added  he,  "an  inviolable  regard  for  religion; 
maintain  the  Catholic  faith  in  its  purity ;  let  the  laws  of  your 
country  be  sacred  in  your  eyes ;  encroach  not  on  the  rights  of 
your  people  ;  and,  if  the  time  should  ever  come  when  you 
shall  wish  to  enjoy  the  tranquillity  of  private  life,  may  you 
have  a  son  to  whom  you  can  resign  your  sceptre  with  as  much 
satisfaction  as  I  give  mine  to  you."  A  few  weeks  after,  the 
emperor  also  resigned  to  Philip  the  Spanish  crown,  with  all  the 
dominions  depending  upon  it,  in  the  Old  as  well  as  in  the  New 
World  ;  reserving  nothing  to  himself,  out  of  all  those  vast  pos- 
sessions, but  an  annual  pension  of  one  hundred  thousand 
ducats. 

Soon  after  his  abdication,  he  desired  father  Johanne  de 
Regla  to  be  his  confessor.  The  good  father  some  time  refused : 
Charles  said  to  him,  "  Holy  father,  do  not  be  alarmed  at  hav- 
ing the  care  of  the  conscience  of  an  emperor,  which,  for  this 
last  year  past,  five  doctors  of  canon  law  and  of  divinity  have 
undertaken  to  relieve." 

In  his  retirement  at  St.  Just,  he  and  Turriano  amused  them- 
selves with  making  collections  of  clocks  and  watches,  and  au- 
tomaton images,  and  in  observing  their  different  motions,  and 
used  to  observe,  with  a  sigh,  how  ill  he  had  spent  his  time  in 
endeavouring  to  make  mankind  think  alike  in  religious  matters, 
when  he  had  never  been  able  to  make  two  watches  go  perfectly 
together. 


QUEEN    ELIZABETH. 


ACCESSION  OF  QUEEN  ELIZABETH.  123 


ACCESSION  OF  QUEEN  ELIZABETH. 

i  HEN  Queen  Mary's  death  was  announced 
to  the  parliament,  which  happened  to  be 
assembled  at  the  time,  the  members  all 
sprang  from  their  seats ;  and  shouts  of 
joy,  and  the  words  "  God  save  Queen 
Elizabeth!"  were  heard  to  resound  on 
every  side.  When  the  news  was  spread  abroad,  the  transport 
of  the  people  was  so  great  that  they  hurried  in  crowds  towards 
Hatfield,  where  Elizabeth  was  then  residing,  and  escorted  her 
into  London.     Elizabeth  was  then  twenty-five  years  old. 

The  new  queen,  from  her  first  coming  to  the  throne,  seemed 
anxious  to  show  an  entire  forgetfulness  of  all  her  former  suffer- 
ings, and  never  testified  any  resentment  towards  those  who  had 
been  instrumental  to  them.  Even  Sir  Henry  Benefield,  in  whose 
custody  she  had  been  for  a  time,  and  whom  she  had  found  a 
severe  jailer,  experienced  from  her  no  other  punishment  or  re- 
buke, but  that  of  her  telling  him  that  he  should  have  the  custody 
of  any  state  prisoner  whom  she  wished  to  be  treated  with  pecu- 
liar severity.  The  cruel  Bonner  was  the  only  one  of  her  sister's 
ministers  to  whom  she  showed  a  marked  dislike.  She  turned 
from  him  with  horror,  and  would  never  speak  to  him  nor  look  at 
him. 

The  first  great  anxiety  of  all  the  Protestant  part  of  the  nation 
was  to  have  a  settlement  of  the  affairs  of  the  church.  In  this 
important  business  Elizabeth  proceeded  with  great  prudence  and 
caution,  and  yet  with  so  much  determination  and  steadiness 
that  she  soon  replaced  every  thing  in  the  state  it  had  been  at 
her  brother's  death ;  and  all  without  one  drop  of  blood  being 
spilt,  or  a  single  estate  confiscated.  Bonner  alone,  for  refusing 
to  acknowledge  her  supremacy,  was  punished  by  being  im- 
prisoned for  life. 

Philip,  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  Queen  Mary's  death,  proposed 


124  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

himself  to  her  sister  in  marriage.  Elizabeth  never  for  a  mo- 
ment thought  of  consenting  to  such  a  union ;  but,  perhaps,  for 
fear  of  making  him  her  enemy,  or  perhaps  from  her  accustomed 
caution,  she  delayed  to  give  a  decisive  answer  as  long  as  she 
could  ;  and  when  she  sent  her  refusal,  she  took  the  opportunity 
of  declaring  to  the  parliament  a  determination  to  lead  a  single 
life. 

Notwithstanding  this  declaration,  Elizabeth  some  years  after- 
wards admitted  the  addresses  of  the  duke  of  Anjou,  the  brother 
of  the  king  of  France.  But  partly  through  her  fear  of  lessening 
her  own  authority,  if  she  admitted  another  to  share  it,  and  partly, 
perhaps,  from  love  to  her  people,  which  made  her  unwilling  to 
give  them  a  foreign  king,  she  broke  off  the  match,  after  keeping 
the  duke  long  in  suspense. 

The  pretensions  of  Mary,  the  young  queen  of  Scotland,  were 
an  early  source  of  disquiet  to  Elizabeth.  Mary  was  great-niece 
of  Henry  VIII.,  and  on  the  plea  that  Elizabeth  had  been  de- 
clared illegitimate,  she  asserted  her  own  right  to  the  crown,  and 
took  upon  her  the  arms  and  title  of  qeeen  of  England.  And 
though  this  empty  boast  was  not  followed  by  any  active  attempt, 
it  yet  laid  the  foundation  in  Elizabeth's  mind  of  a  deadly  hatred 
towards  her. 

Mary  had  been  married  to  the  dauphin,  who,  on  his  father's 
death,  became  king  of  France,  by  the  title  of  Francis  II. ;  and 
she  had  thus  been,  for  a  brief  season,  the  queen  of  the  most 
splendid  court  in  Europe,  into  all  the  dissipations  of  which  she 
entered  eagerly.  When,  on  the  early  death  of  Francis,  she  was 
obliged  to  return  to  Scotland,  the  contrast  between  the  country 
she  left  and  that  which  she  was  now  come  to  inhabit  struck  her 
with  melancholy ;  and  the  rude  manners  of  the  Scots  filled  her 
with  disgust. 

This  disgust  was  increased  by  difference  of  religion.  Mary 
had  been  brought  up  a  bigoted  Catholic  ;  and  the  Reformation, 
which  had  now  made  great  progress  in  Scotland,  was  not  marked 
there  with  a  mild  and  conciliatory  spirit.  The  Scotch  reformers 
were  men  of  rigid  zeal,  and  condemned  all  gayety  and  amuse- 
ments as  sinful.  They  were  as  much  shocked  at  the  queen's 
levities,  as  she  was  displeased  by  their  austerity. 

While  these  discontents  were  growing  in  Scotland,  the  queen 
of  England  was  busily  employed  in  putting  the  affairs  of  her 


ACCESSION  OF  QUEEN  ELIZABETH. 


125 


LORD    BURLEIGH. 


kingdom  in  order.  She  called  in  the  old  coin,  which  had  been 
shamefully  debased  in  the  last  three  reigns,  and  replaced  it  by 
a  coinage  of  the  standard  weight.  She  filled  her  arsenals  with 
arms  ;  she  introduced  the  manufacturing  of  gunpowder  into  Eng- 
land ;  she  frequently  reviewed  her  militia,  and  put  the  country 
into  a  complete  state  of  defence  ;  she  encouraged  agriculture, 
trade,  and  navigation,  and  increased  her  navy  so  much  that  she 
has  been  called  "  the  queen  of  the  northern  seas." 

Elizabeth's  wise  government  was  respected  abroad  and  pros- 
perous at  home.  She  was  exceedingly  fortunate  in  the  choice 
of  her  ministers ;  particularly  in  her  treasurer,  Lord  Burleigh, 
and  her  secretary  Walsingham,  who  were  men  of  extraordinary 
abilities  and  integrity.  While  affairs  were  managed  with  so 
much  vigour  and  success,  her  people  were  scarcely  aware  in  how 
great  a  degree  their  queen  kept  gradually  enlarging  her  pre- 
rogative, nor  how  much  their  own  liberties  were  infringed. 


126 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


DEATH  OF  MARY,  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


HE  Catholic  powers  of  the  continent  formed 
many  schemes  for  annoying  or  dethroning 
Elizabeth  ;  and  the  imprisoned  Scottish 
queen,  or  her  adherents,  were  generally 
concerned  in  them.  The  king  of  Spain, 
determined  at  length  to  make  a  decisive 
effort,  commenced  the  preparation  of  a 
vast  fleet,  which  he  termed  the  Invincible 
Armada,  and  with  which  he  designed  to  invade  the  English 
shores.  Elizabeth,  her  ministers,  and  people  beheld  the  pre- 
parations with  much  concern,  and  their  fears  were  increased  by 
the  plots  which  were  incessantly  forming  among  her  Catholic 
subjects  in  behalf  of  the  queen  of  Scots.  An  act  was  passed 
declaring  that  any  person  by  or  for  whom  any  plot  should  be 
made  against  the  queen  of  England  should  be  guilty  of  treason. 
When,  soon  after,  a  gentleman  named  Babington  formed  a  con- 
spiracy for  assassinating  Elizabeth  and  placing  Mary  on  the 
throne,  the  latter  queen  became  of  course  liable  to  the  punish- 
ment for  treason,  although  herself  innocent.  She  was  subjected 
to  a  formal  trial  in  her  prison  of  Fotheringay  Castle,  and  found 
guilty.  Elizabeth  hesitated  for  some  time  to  strike  an  unof- 
fending and  unfortunate  person,  related  to  her  in  blood  and  her 
equal  in  rank.  But  at  length  fears  for  herself  got  the  better  of 
her  sense  of  justice,  and  it  may  be  added  of  her  good  sense,  and 
she  gave  her  sanction  to  an  act  which  leaves  an  ineffaceable  stain 
upon  her  memory.  On  the  7th  of  February,  1587,  Mary  queen 
of  Scots  was  beheaded  in  the  hall  of  the  castle,  after  a  confine- 
ment of  more  than  eighteen  years. 


DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA. 


127 


DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  SPANISH  ARMADA. 


N  1588,  the  Spanish  Armada,  consisting  of  a 
hundred  and  thirty  great  vessels,  with  twenty 
thousand  land  forces  on  board,  set  sail  against 
England,  while  thirty-four  thousand  more  land 
forces  prepared  to  join  from  the  Netherlands. 
Amidst  the  consternation  which  prevailed  in 
England,  active  measures  were  taken  to  de- 
fend the  country;  thirty  vessels  prepared  to 
meet  the  Armada,  and  another  fleet  endea- 
voured to  block  up  the  Netherlands  forces  in 
port.  The  command  was  taken  by  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham. 
Troops  were  also  mustered  on  land  to  repel  the  invaders.  The 
English  fleet  attacked  the  Armada  in  the  channel,  and  was 


128 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


found  to  have  a  considerable  advantage  in  the  lightness  and 
manageableness  of  the  vessels.  As  the  Armada  sailed  along,  it 
was  infested  by  the  English  in  the  rear,  and,  by  a  series  of  de- 
sultory attacks,  so  damaged  as  to  be  obliged  to  take  refuge  on 
the  coast  of  Zealand.  The  duke  of  Parma  now  declined  to  em- 
bark the  Netherlands  forces,  and  it  was  resolved  by  the  admi- 
ral that  they  should  return  to  Spain  by  sailing  round  the  Ork- 
neys, as  the  winds  were  contrary  to  their  passage  directly  back. 
Accordingly,  they  proceeded  northward,  and  were  followed  by 
the  English  fleet  as  far  as  Flamborough  head,  where  they  were 
terribly  shattered  by  a  storm.  Seventeen  of  the  ships,  having 
5000  men  on  board,  were  cast  away  on  the  Western  Isles  and 
the  coast  of  Ireland.  Of  the  whole  Armada,  fifty-three  ships 
only  returned  to  Spain,  and  these  in  a  wretched  condition.  The 
seamen,  as  well  as  the  soldiers  who  remained,  were  so  overcome 
with  hardships  and  fatigue,  and  so  dispirited  by  their  discom- 
fiture, that  they  filled  all  Spain  with  accounts  of  the  desperate 
valour  of  the  English,  and  of  the  tempestuous  violence  of  that 
ocean  by  which  they  were  surrounded. 


DEATH     OF     THE     EARL     OF     ESSEX. 


DEATH  OF  QUEEN  ELIZABETH. 


131 


DEATH  OF  QUEEN  ELIZABETH. 


T  is  remarkable,  that  while  Elizabeth  in- 
creased in  power  and  resources,  she  be- 
came more  noted  for  feminine  weaknesses. 
In  her  early  years  she  had  shown  a  stoi- 
cism and  a  superiority  to  natural  affections 
not  usually  observed  in  women.  But  in 
her  old  age,  she  became  both  volatile  and 
susceptible  to  an  extraordinary  degree ;  so  that  the  hand  which 
she  had  withheld,  in  her  younger  days,  from  the  noblest  princes 
of  Europe,  seemed  likely  to  be  bestowed,  in  her  old  age,  upon 
some  mere  court  minion.  Her  favourite  in  middle  life  was 
Robert,  earl  of  Leicester,  a  profligate  and  a  trifler.  In  her  latter 
days  she  listened  to  the  addresses  of  the  earl  of  Essex,  a  young 
man  of  greater  courage  and  better  principle,  but  also  headstrong 
and  weak.  Essex,  who  had  acquired  popularity  by  several  bril- 
liant military  enterprises,  began  at  length  to  assume  an  insolent 
superiority  over  the  queen,  who  was  on  one  occasion  so  much  pro- 
voked by  his  rudeness  as  to  give  him  a  hearty  box  on  the  ear. 
Notwithstanding  all  his  caprices  and  insults,  the  queen  still 
dotingly  forgave  him,  until  he  at  length  attempted  to  raise  an 
insurrection  against  her  in  the  streets  of  London,  when  he  was 
seized,  condemned,  and  after  much  hesitation  executed,  (February 
25,  1601.) 

Elizabeth,  in  at  last  ordering  the  execution  of  Essex,  had 
acted  upon  her  usual  principle  of  sacrificing  her  feelings  to  what 
was  necessary  for  the  public  cause  ;  but  in  this  effort,  made  in 
the  sixty-eighth  year  of  her  age,  she  had  miscalculated  the  real 
strength  of  her  nature.  She  was  seen  from  that  time  to  decline 
gradually  in  health  and  spirits. 

About  the  close  of  1601,  she  fell  into  a  deep  hypochondria  or 
melancholy.     She  could  scarcely  be  induced  to  have   herself 


132 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


dressed,  and  at  length  became  so  much  absorbed  by  her  sorrow 
as  to  refuse  sustenance,  and  sat  for  days  and  nights  on  the 
floor,  supported  by  a  few  cushions  brought  to  her  by  her  attend- 
ants. On  the  24th  of  March,  1603,  she  expired,  after  a  reign 
of  nearly  forty-five  years,  during  which  England  advanced  from 
the  condition  of  a  second-rate  to  that  of  a  first-rate  power, 
and  the  Protestant  religion  was  established  on  a  basis  from 
which  it  could  never  afterwards  be  shaken. 


COMMENCEMENT   OF   THE   CIVIL  WAR  IN   FRANCE.        133 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR  IN 
FRANCE. 


RANCIS  I.  died  on  the  31st  of  March, 
1547,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son, 
Henry  II.,  who  was  married  to  the 
Italian  princess,  Catherine  de  Medicis, 
so  conspicuous  in  French  history.  His 
reign  was  chiefly  signalized  by  the  bat- 
tle of  St.  Quentin,  fought  May  10, 
1557,  in  which  the  French  sustained 
from  the  Spaniards  the  greatest  defeat 
they  had  suffered  since  the  days  of  Cres- 
sy  and  Poictiers;  and  the  capture  of  Calais  from  the  English, 
which  was  effected  by  the  duke  of  Guise,  Jan.  8,  1558.  Henry 
II.  was  accidentally  killed  by  the  Count  de  Montgomeri,  at  a 
tournament,  June  29,  1559.  His  successor,  Francis  II.,  who 
married  Mary  queen  of  Scots,  reigned  but  one  year  and  five 
months.  To  counteract  the  ascendency  of  the  Guise  family, 
and  to  gain  religious  liberty,  the  Huguenots,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Prince  of  Conde  and  the  king  of  Navarre,  formed 
the  famous  conspiracy  of  Amboise,  which  was  discovered, 
and  the  princes  seized  and  imprisoned.     Cond^  was  condemned 

M 


134  INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

to  die,  but  his  life  was  saved  by  the  death  of  Francis.  Cathe- 
rine de  Medicis,  wishing  to  oppose  their  influence  to  that  of  the 
Guise's,  spared  and  liberated  them. 

Francis  II.  was  succeeded  by  Charles  IX.,  (a.  d.  1560,)  in 
whose  reign  the  civil  wars  between  the  Huguenots  and  Catholics 
raged  almost  incessantly.  The  events  of  the  late  king's  short 
reign  had  tended  to  place  the  affairs  of  the  country  in  even  a 
worse  condition  than  they  were  in  at  the  death  of  Henry  II. 
The  evils  of  faction  were  severely  felt,  and  the  violence  of  reli- 
gious differences  was  increased. 

It  was  in  vain  that  the  chancellor  l'Hopital,  in  a  speech  on 
the  opening  of  the  first  assembly  of  the  states  in  the  new  reign, 
exhorted  to  patriotism  and  religious  toleration.  These  virtues 
were  at  that  time  but  little  known  in  France.  Catherine  and 
the  duke  of  Guise  were  solely  intent  on  the  possession  of  power. 
The  duke,  although  he  could  not  pretend  to  rule  the  present 
king,  as  he  had  ruled  his  brother,  was  yet  very  unwilling  to  give 
up  the  authority  which  he  had  been  of  late  accustomed  to  exer- 
cise. To  strengthen  his  hands,  he  entered  into  a  close  confe- 
deracy with  the  constable  Montmorenci.  The  mare'chal  St. 
Andre'  was  another  member  of  this  confederacy,  which  was 
called  the  triumvirate.  The  prince  of  Condd  regained  his  liberty 
on  the  late  king's  death,  and  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Huguenots.  His  brother,  the  king  of  Navarre,  soon  after 
deserted  the  Huguenots,  and  went  over  to  the  party  of  the 
triumvirs. 

Catherine,  to  balance  the  power  of  this  confederacy,  and  be- 
lieving that  the  grand  secret  of  politics  was  to  govern  all  parties 
by  dividing  them  against  each  other,  now  affected  to  entertain 
a  great  regard  for  the  Huguenots,  and  granted  them  several 
privileges.  But  these  concessions  to  the  Huguenots  only  added 
strength  to  the  triumvirate ;  for  the  Catholics,  becoming  alarmed, 
and  believing  their  own  church  in  danger,  relied  for  protection 
chiefly  on  the  princes  of  Lorraine.  The  two  parties  became 
every  day  more  inflamed,  and  mutual  insults,  and  retaliations 
took  place.  A  civil  war  was  ready  to  burst  forth,  and  nothing 
was  wanting  but  a  pretext  to  begin. 

It  was  not  long  before  this  was  found.  Several  Huguenots, 
while  at  their  devotions  in  a  barn  at  Vassy,  were  insulted  by 
the  servants  of  the  duke  of  Guise,  who  was  travelling  through 


COMMENCEMENT   OF   THE   CIVIL   WAR   IN   FRANCE.         135 

the  place.  An  affray  ensued,  in  which  the  duke,  while  endea- 
vouring to  quell  the  tumult,  received  a  blow  in  the  face  from  a 
stone.  His  servants,  exasperated  at  seeing  their  master  thus 
wounded,  attacked  the  Huguenots,  and  killed  several  of  them. 
The  Huguenots  interpreted  the  massacre  of  these  peasants  as  a 
premeditated  commencement  of  hostilities,  and  as  a  signal  to 
arm.  The  prince  of  Conde*  seized  on  the  town  of  Orleans,  and 
there  established  the  chief  seat  of  his  party,  and  published,  a 
manifesto  calling  on  all  good  Protestants  to  assist  him  in  the 
common  cause.  The  Huguenots  possessed  themselves  also  of 
many  other  towns  in  different  parts  of  the  kingdom.  They 
applied  for  assistance  to  the  English  queen,  and  put  the  town  of 
Havre  into  her  hands,  as  a  requital  for  the  succours  which  she 
engaged  to  send  them.  This  was  the  commencement  of  those 
dreadful  religious  wars,  to  which  all  France  was  to  become  a 
prey  for  many  years ;  wars  which  were  carried  on  with  the 
greatest  animosity,  tearing  asunder  all  family  and  social  ties, 
and  exposing  the  wretched  inhabitants  to  all  the  horrors  of  fire 
and  of  the  sword.  Mezerai  says,  "  If  any  one  were  to  relate 
all  that  passed  at  this  time  in  different  parts  of  France,  all  the 
taking  and  retaking  of  towns, — the  infinity  of  little  combats, — 
the  furies, — the  massacres,  it  would  take  up  a  great  many 
volumes."     We  pass  over  all  but  the  leading  events. 

In  1562,  Rouen,  which  was  in  possession  of  the  Huguenots, 
was  besieged  by  the  Catholics.  During  this  siege,  the  king  of 
Navarre  received  a  wound,  of  which  he  soon  after  died,  at 
Andelys,  in  his  way  to  Paris.  When  he  found  himself  dying, 
he  sent  an  express  to  his  queen,  exhorting  her  to  keep  on  her 
guard,  and  on  no  account  to  trust  herself  at  court. 

The  garrison  of  Rouen  was  commanded  by  the  count  de 
Montgomeri.  He  defended  the  town  with  great  spirit,  but  it 
was  at  last  taken  by  assault,  and  was  given  up  to  pillage.  When 
Rouen  was  taken,  Montgomeri  saved  himself  from  falling  into 
the  enemy's  hands  by  hurrying  on  board  a  galley.  He  promised 
liberty  to  the  crew  if  they  got  him  off.  The  crew  rowed  so 
vigorously  that  they  broke  through  the  chains  which  were  placed 
across  the  Seine  at  Caudebec,  and  landed  him  in  safety  at 
Havre. 


136 


INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


CHARLES    IX. 


BATTLE  OF   DREUX,   SIEGE   OF  ORLEANS, 
AND   BATTLE  OF  ST.  DENIS. 


N  the  same  year,  a  battle  was  fought  at  Dreux. 
in  Normandy.  At  the  first  onset,  St.  Andre* 
was  killed,  and  Montmorenci  was  taken  pri- 
soner. Some  persons  who  fled  hastened  to 
Paris  with  the  intelligence  that  the  Catholics 
were  overthrown.  The  queen,  who  perhaps 
thought  that  the  victory  of  the  Huguenots 
was  more  to  her  advantage  than  any  event  which  might  increase 
the  power  of  the  house  of  Guise,  only  observed,  with  the  utmost 
levity,  "  Well  then  {He  Men)  we  must  now  say  our  prayers  in 
French."  But  the  fortune  of  the  battle  had  in  the  mean  time 
changed.  The  prince  of  Cond£  was  taken  prisoner,  and  Coligny, 
who  then  took  the  command  of  the  Huguenots,  was  obliged  to 


BATTLE   OF   DREUX.  137 

retire  from  the  field.  Conde'  was  immediately  conveyed  to  the 
tent  of  the  duke  of  Guise,  who,  seeming  to  forget  that  any 
causes  of  animosity  had  subsisted  between  them,  received  him 
more  as  a  guest  than  as  a  prisoner,  and  as  a  mark  of  his  confi- 
dence and  friendship,  made  him  sleep  in  the  same  bed  with  him- 
self. Cond^  afterwards  declared  that  Guise  slept  as  soundly  as 
if  his  best  friend,  instead  of  his  greatest  enemy,  was  lying  by 
his  side ;  but  that,  as  for  himself,  he  had  not  closed  his  eyes  all 
night. 

In  February,  1563,  the  Catholic  army,  under  the  command 
of  the  duke  of  Guise,  laid  siege  to  Orleans.  The  town  was  on 
the  point  of  being  taken,  when  one  evening,  as  the  duke  was 
returning  to  the  camp  from  a  visit  to  his  family,  he  received  a 
mortal  wound  in  the  shoulder  by  a  pistol-shot,  fired  at  him  by  a 
man  named  Poltrot.  The  duke  instantly  fell,  and  the  assassin, 
putting  spurs  to  his  horse,  galloped  off.  After  having  ridden 
full  speed  the  whole  of  the  night,  which  was  extremely  dark, 
Poltrot  supposed  himself  to  be  many  miles  from  Orleans.  But 
when  daylight  broke,  he  found  himself  only  about  a  mile  from 
the  spot  from  which  he  had  first  set  out.  His  horse  was  unable 
to  go  a  step  farther,  and  he  was  constrained  to  seek  shelter  in  a 
house,  where,  throwing  himself  on  a  bed,  he  soon  fell  asleep.  In 
this  state  he  was  discovered,  and  being  put  to  the  torture,  he 
accused  several  persons  of  having  been  his  instigators,  and 
amongst  others,  the  admiral  Coligny.  Coligny  protested  his 
innocence,  and  demanded  to  be  confronted  with  his  accuser; 
but  this  favour  was  denied  him.  Poltrot  was  put  to  death  with 
savage  cruelty.  Guise  lived  only  six  days  after  his  wound ;  but 
before  he  died,  he  exhorted  Catherine  to  make  peace  with  the 
Huguenots.  He  left  three  sons,  Henry,  who  succeeded  him  in 
his  dukedom,  the  cardinal  de  Guise,  and  Charles,  due  de  Mayenne. 
He  had  one  daughter,  married  to  the  due  de  Montpensier. 
The  queen,  in  compliance  with  the  dying  advice  of  the  duke  of 
Guise,  made  peace  with  the  Huguenots,  and  granted  them  very 
favourable  conditions.  These  conditions  were  never  fulfilled, 
but  hostilities  did  not  break  out  again  for  above  four  years. 

Catherine  made  use  of  this  interval  to  conduct  the  king  on  a 

royal  progress  to  different  parts  of  his  kingdom,  with  a  view  to 

ascertain,  if  possible,  the  real  strength  of  the  Huguenots.     At 

Bayonne,  the  royal  party  was  met  by  Elizabeth,  or,  as  she  was 

18  m2 


138  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

called  by  the  Spaniards,  Isabella,  queen  of  Spain,  to  whom 
Philip  II.  allowed  the  indulgence  of  a  visit  to  her  mother  and 
brother.  She  was  escorted  by  the  duke  of  Alva,  Philip's  proud 
and  cruel  minister ;  and  Catherine,  who  often  concealed  under 
the  cloak  of  festivities  the  most  bloody  and  relentless  purposes, 
is  believed  to  have  held  with  him  secret  conferences,  which  had 
for  their  object  the  extirpation  of  the  Protestants.  But  with  all 
Catherine's  art,  she  could  not  avert  the  suspicion  which  justly 
attached  both  to  her  measures  and  her  character.  The  Protest- 
ants had  long  observed  that,  though  she  had  often  made  them 
flattering  promises,  yet  these  promises  were  never  performed. 
Perpetual  outrages  were  committed  Ly  the  Catholics  both  on 
their  persons  and  their  property.  The  duke  of  Alva,  after  the 
meeting  at  Bayonne,  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  a  nume- 
rous army  in  the  Low  Countries,  now  in  a  state  of  revolt  against 
Philip's  authority.  He  was  the  known  enemy  of  their  religion: 
he  might  easily  enter  France  and  further  the  designs  of  the 
queen-mother  against  them. 

Thus  goaded  by  past,  and  apprehensive  of  future  injuries, 
the  Huguenots  flew  to  arms  in  1567.  Their  first  enterprise  was 
an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  possess  themselves  of  the  person  of 
the  young  king,  who  was  then  at  Meaux.  They  next  proceeded 
to  Paris,  which  they  held  in  blockade  during  eight  days.  The 
constable  Montmorenci  had  the  command  of  the  city  ;  and  the 
Parisians,  impatient  under  the  restraints  of  a  blockade,  obliged 
him,  contrary  to  his  judgment,  to  march  out  and  attack  the 
enemy,  who  were  exceedingly  inferior  in  numbers.  The  two 
armies  encountered  in  the  plain  of  St.  Denis,  and  the  Hugue- 
nots were  worsted ;  but  the  victory  was  dearly  bought  by  the 
death  of  the  constable,  who,  although  in  the  75th  year  of  his 
age,  fought  with  the  courage  and  activity  of  youth.  Even 
when  at  last  he  fell  covered  with  wounds,  he  had  so  much  vigour 
left,  that,  by  a  blow  with  the  pommel  of  his  sword,  he  beat  out 
some  of  the  teeth  and  broke  the  jawbone  of  Robert  Stuart,  a 
Scotsman,  who  had  given  him  his  last  and  mortal  wound. 


THE    DUKE    OF    ALVA. 


BATTLES  OF  JARNAC  AND  MONTCONTOUR. 


141 


BATTLES  OF  JARNAC  AND  MONTCONTOUR. 


FTER  the  battle  of  St.  Denis,  a  peace  was 
patched  up  with  the  Huguenots,  but  it  was 
ill  kept,  and  in  a  few  months  the  war  broke 
out  more  furiously  than  ever.  On  March 
13, 1569,  the  two  parties  met  on  the  banks 
of  the  river  Charente,  near  the  town  of 
Jarnac.  The  royal  army  was  nearly  four 
times  stronger  than  that  of  the  adversary.  Conde'  entered  the 
field  of  battle  with  his  arm  in  a  sling,  from  the  effects  of  a 
former  wound.  Before  the  engagement  commenced,  a  kick 
from  a  restive  horse  broke  his  leg  ;  but,  undaunted  by  this 
accident,  he  made  a  short  and  animated  harangue  to  his  soldiers, 
and  rushed  forward  against  the  enemy.  The  Huguenots  fought 
with  desperate  courage,  but,  overpowered  by  superior  numbers, 
were  at  length  obliged  to  fly.  Conde',  as  you  may  well  sup- 
pose, was  now  unable  to  move,  and  was  compelled  to  allow  him- 
self to  be  taken  prisoner.  He  was  lifted  from  his  horse,  and 
placed  on  the  ground,  under  the  shade  of  a  tree.  Here  one  of 
the  captains  of  the  duke  of  Anjou's  guard  basely  came  behind 
him,  and  shot  him  dead.  He  left  three  young  sons,  Henry, 
who  succeeded  as  prince  of  Conde',  the  count  of  Soissons,  and 
the  prince  of  Conti. 

Henry,  prince  of  Beam,  now  about  sixteen  years  of  age,  the 


142  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

son  of  Anthony,  late  king  of  Navarre,  was,  on  Condi's  death, 
declared  the  head  of  the  Protestants  ;  but,  on  account  of  his 
youth,  the  command  of  their  forces  was  given  to  Coligny.  Ro- 
chelle  was  at  this  time  one  of  their  chief  bulwarks,  and  here 
the  queen  of  Navarre  resided  with  her  family,  together  with 
many  of  the  principal  leaders  of  the  Huguenot  cause. 

In  the  following  October,  the  Catholics  obtained  another  vic- 
tory at  Montcontour  ;  but  their  opponents,  though  often  beaten, 
were  far  from  being  subdued.  In  1570,  Coligny  transferred  the 
war  into  Burgundy,  where  he  obtained  the  advantage.  Peace 
was  again  made,  and  Coligny  was  sent  for  to  court.  He  went 
reluctantly,  and  with  hesitation,  but  the  apparently  cordial  and 
sincere  manner  of  the  king  soon  effaced  all  unpleasant  suspi- 
cions and  lulled  him  into  security.  Some  authors  say,  and  we 
may,  I  hope,  incline  to  believe  them,  that  Charles  was  really 
sincere,  and  actually  meant  at  the  time  to  fulfil  his  professions. 
But  the  common  notion  is,  that  the  whole  of  the  shocking  per- 
fidy which  I  have  here  to  relate,  was  a  deep  laid  plot  of  his  and 
his  mother's  contriving.  Catherine,  to  calm  the  suspicions  of 
the  Protestants,  proposed  and  concluded  a  marriage  between 
the  prince  of  Beam  and  her  daughter  Margaret.  The  queen 
of  Navarre  was  invited  to  Paris  to  be  present  at  the  nuptials. 
It  would,  perhaps,  have  been  better  for  her  if  she  had  adhered 
to  her  husband's  injunctions,  and  had  not  ventured  to  court. 
She,  however,  came,  and  was  apparently  received  by  Charles 
with  the  open-hearted  affection  due  to  a  relative;  but  it  is 
said,  that  when  their  interview  was  over,  he  boasted  to  his 
mother  "how  well  he  had  acted  his  part."  The  pope  had  op- 
posed with  all  his  power  the  marriage  of  Margaret  with  a  Hu- 
guenot prince ;  but  it  is  said  that  Charles  assured  the  pope's 
legate  of  his  own  entire  devotion  to  the  holy  see,  and,  pressing 
his  hand,  added  these  remarkable  words:  01  s'il  metoit per- 
mit cle  m'expliquer  d'avantage. 


MASSACRE  OF  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW.  143 


MASSACRE   OF   ST.  BARTHOLOMEW. 

,N  the  midst  of  the  preparations  for  the 
marriage  of  the  young  prince  and 
princess,  the  queen  of  Navarre  died 
suddenly.  Her  death  is  now  generally 
attributed  to  some  constitutional  dis- 
ease ;  but  at  the  time  the  Protestants 
naturally  took  alarm  at  it,  and  many 
of  them  believed  it  to  have  been  pro- 
cured by  means  of  a  poisoned  pair  of 
gloves,  which  she  had  purchased  of  Catherine's  Italian  per- 
fumer. The  marriage  of  Henry,  now  by  his  mother's  death 
king  of  Navarre,  with  Margaret  of  Valois,  took  place  August 
18,  1572.  It  is  said  that  the  bride  was  extremely  averse  to  it; 
that  the  being  united  to  a  Huguenot  filled  her  with  repugnance 
and  horror  ;  and  that  her  affections  had  been  previously  fixed 
on  the  duke  of  Guise.  But  Catherine  was  not  accustomed  to 
let  the  feelings  of  others  stand  in  the  way  of  her  own  schemes. 
The  court  was  now,  to  all  appearance,  fully  occupied  with 
banquets,  masquerades,  and  other  splendid  entertainments.  The 
Huguenots  were  treated  with  the  greatest  attention.  The  inha- 
bitants of  Rochelle  repeatedly  sent  entreaties  to  Coligny  to  quit 
Paris,  and  "  not  trust  himself  in  the  power  of  a  king  whose 
passions  were  uncontrollable,  and  of  an  Italian  woman  whose 
dissimulation  was  unfathomable."  But  Coligny  would  not 
hearken  to  their  cautions,  and  declared  himself  ready  to  abide 
all  hazards  rather  than  show  a  distrust  which  might  plunge  the 
country  again  into  a  civil  war. 

On  August  22,  as  Coligny  was  returning  from  the  Louvre  to 
his  hotel,  and  walking  slowly,  perusing  some  papers,  he  was 
fired  at  by  a  man  stationed  behind  a  grated  window.  He  was 
wounded  in  two  places,  but  it  was  thought  not  dangerously.  On 
being  conveyed  home,   he   was  instantly  surrounded   by  the 


144  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

alarmed  and  agitated  Huguenots.  It  was  discovered  that  the 
assassin  was  a  servant  of  the  duke  of  Guise,  and  that  he  had 
been  stationed  for  two  days  behind  the  window  to  wait  for  his 
victim.  The  king  and  Catherine,  on  hearing  of  this  outrage, 
visited  Coligny  in  his  bed-chamber,  expressed  the  greatest  con- 
cern at  the  accident,  and  sent  him  a  guard  of  their  own  soldiers, 
as  if  for  his  protection.  They  professed  great  anxiety  lest  the 
Parisians  should  commit  any  act  of  hostility  against  the  Pro- 
testants :  they  gave  orders  to  close  all  the  city  gates  except 
two,  under  colour  of  preventing  the  escape  of  the  assassin ; 
and  had  an  account  laid  before  them  of  the  names  and  places 
of  abode  of  all  the  Huguenots  in  Paris,  on  the  pretence  of  tak- 
ing them  under  their  immediate  protection.  Every  thing  re- 
mained quiet  during  two  days.  It  was  like  the  calm  before  a 
thunder-storm. 

The  transactions  of  the  bloody  day  of  St.  Bartholomew  are 
involved  in  great  obscurity.  Some  assert  that  the  massacre 
had  been  planned  two  years  before  it  was  executed.  Others, 
that  the  death  of  Coligny  alone  was  the  main  object  of  Cathe- 
rine's machinations,  and  that  the  slaughter  which  followed  was 
an  after-thought  on  the  part  of  the  court,  and  resorted  to  as  an 
act  of  self-defence  against  the  Huguenots,  who  might  be  ex- 
pected to  revenge  the  death  of  the  admiral.  On  Saturday, 
August  the  23d,  it  was  finally  determined  that  the  massacre 
should  begin  that  night,  and  that  the  signal  should  be  the  strik- 
ing of  the  tocsin,  or  great  bell  of  the  palace.  The  Swiss  guards 
and  the  city  militia  were  ordered  to  be  in  readiness,  wearing  a 
white  cross  on  their  hats,  and  a  scarf  on  their  left  arms. 

As  the  hour  approached,  the  king,  less  hardened  than  his 
mother,  was  in  the  greatest  agitation  :  he  trembled  from  head 
to  foot,  and  the  perspiration  ran  down  his  forehead.  His 
mother  and  the  duke  of  Anjou  had  great  difficulty  in  keeping 
him  steady  to  his  purpose.  The  queen  at  length  forced  a  com- 
mand from  him  to  commence  the  slaughter,  and  then,  to  pre- 
vent the  possibility  of  his  retracting,  she  hastened,  as  it  is  said, 
the  fatal  signal,  which  was  given  at  half-past  one  o'clock  in  the 
morning  by  the  great  bell  of  the  palace.  On  the  first  sound, 
the  implacable  Guise  flew  to  the  house  of  Coligny,  and  there 
completed  his  bloody  purpose  ;  not  indeed  by  his  own  hands, 
for  he  remained  below  and  sent  up  his  people  to  the  admiral's 


C  0  L  I  a  N  Y. 


MASSACRE  OF  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW.  147 

chamber.  The  venerable  old  man,  disabled  by  his  late  wounds, 
had  no  other  defence  than  his  calm,  intrepid  countenance.  La 
Besme,  a  German  servant  of  the  duke  of  Guise,  approached 
him  with  his  drawn  sword  in  his  hand.  "  Young  man,"  said 
Coligny,  "  you  ought  to  reverence  these  gray  hairs  ;  but  do  what 
you  think  proper;  my  life  can  be  shortened  but  a  very  little." 
La  Besme  made  no  answer,  but  plunged  the  sword  into  the  ad- 
miral's body,  while  the  other  assassins  despatched  him  with 
their  daggers  :  they  then  threw  the  body  out  of  the  window. 
The  head  was  cut  off  and  carried  as  a  trophy  to  the  queen,  who, 
it  is  said,  caused  it  to  be  embalmed,  and  sent  it  as  a  present  to 
the  pope.  The  headless  trunk  was  dragged  about  the  streets 
by  the  frantic  mob,  who  afterwards  hung  it  on  a  gibbet  at 
Montfaugon,  where  it  remained  some  days  scorched,  though  not 
consumed,  by  a  fire  which  was  lighted  under  it.  The  king  and 
his  mother  came  to  view  it.  At  last,  it  was  secretly  conveyed 
away  by  orders  of  the  mare'chal  Montmorenci,  who  gave  it 
honourable  burial  in  his  chapel  at  Chantilly. 

I  must  now  return  to  the  other  events  of  this  horrid  massacre. 
When  morning  dawned,  the  king,  who  had  got  rid  of  his  tremors, 
called  for  his  long  fowling-piece,  and  placed  himself  at  one  of 
the  windows  of  the  palace  which  looked  on  the  Seine,  and  em- 
ployed himself  in  firing  on  the  wretched  Huguenots,  who  were 
endeavouring  to  secure  themselves  by  crossing  the  river.  He 
continually  exclaimed,  as  he  aimed  at  the  fugitives,  Tue,  tue, 
tirons :  mon  Dieu  !  Us  s'enfuient. 

Henry  of  Navarre,  and  the  young  prince  of  Conde,  and 
several  other  Huguenots,  were,  by  the  king's  particular  desire, 
lodged  in  the  Louvre.  All  were  sacrificed  with  the  exception  of 
the  two  princes.  The  queen-mother  even  looked  from  her  win- 
dow at  the  slaughtered  bodies  as  they  were  brought  out  and 
thrown  into  the  court  of  the  palace.  In  the  city,  also,  the  work 
of  death  was  going  on  with  equal  ferocity,  and  did  not  entirely 
cease  during  seven  days.  More  than  five  thousand  persons  of 
all  ranks  are  supposed  to  have  perished  in  Paris  alone.  Some 
few  had  been  so  fortunate  as  to  save  themselves  by  flight  at  the 
first  alarm.  Others  were  preserved  by  the  humanity  of  some  of 
the  Catholics.  The  marechal  Biron,  who  was  in  the  post  of 
master  of  the  artillery,  gave  to  some  a  secure  refuge  at  the 
arsenal ;  and  the  duke  of  Guise  himself  gave  protection  in  his 


148  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

own  house  to  many  whom  he  was  desirous  to  attach  to  his  ser- 
vice. One  poor  boy  saved  his  life  by  concealing  himself  under 
the  murdered  bodies  of  his  father  and  brother,  and  afterwards 
lived  to  be  a  mare'chal  of  France.  The  massacre  was  not  con- 
fined to  Paris  ;  orders  were  also  sent  into  the  provinces  to  put 
the  Huguenots  to  the  sword.  In  many  places  these  orders  were 
too  well  obeyed,  but  not  in  all.  The  governor  of  Bayonne,  we 
are  told,  in  answer  to  the  king's  mandate,  wrote  as  follows : 
"  Your  majesty  has  many  faithful  servants  in  Bayonne,  but  not 
one  executioner." 

The  court  for  a  time  exulted  in  its  victory.  Charles  was 
heard  to  declare,  that  now  he  had  got  rid  of  the  rebels,  he  should 
live  in  peace.  Alas !  he  had  murdered  for  ever  all  his  own 
peace.  His  and  Catherine's  punishment  soon  began.  Instead 
of  living  in  peace,  they  were  a  prey  to  constant  disquietude.  At 
one  time  the  king  denied  all  participation  in  the  massacre,  and 
threw  the  whole  blame  of  it  on  the  duke  of  Guise.  The  very 
next  day  he  avowed  the  deed  publicly,  and  gloried  in  it,  and  had 
a  solemn  mass  performed  to  celebrate  what  he  called  the  victory 
over  the  Protestants,  and  had  medals  struck  in  commemoration 
of  it. 

The  authors  of  the  massacre,  to  throw  the  more  odium  on  the 
Protestants,  and,  as  they  hoped,  to  justify  themselves,  pretended 
that  Coligny  had  formed  a  plot  to  kill  the  king.  They  insti- 
tuted a  mock  trial  against  him  for  treason :  they  sentenced  him 
to  be  hung  in  effigy :  they  commanded  every  portrait  of  him  to 
be  destroyed  and  trampled  on  by  the  common  hangman.  His 
property  was  confiscated,  his  house  at  Chatillon  levelled  with 
the  ground,  and  his  children  degraded  from  their  rank.  To 
give  more  colour  to  this  imaginary  plot,  they  accused  two  inno- 
cent men  as  being  accessory  to  it,  and  caused  them  to  be  hung 
on  the  same  gibbet,  from  which  was  suspended  also  the  effigy  of 
the  admiral. 

Conde'  and  the  king  of  Navarre  were  for  a  time  kept  prison- 
ers in  the  Louvre.  Both  persuasions  and  threats  were  resorted 
to,  to  make  them  renounce  the  Protestant  principles  ;  and  at  last 
these  princes,  young,  without  friends  and  advisers,  and  overcome 
with  grief,  dismay,  and  horror  at  the  scenes  which  were  passing 
around  them,  yielded  to  the  pressure  of  their  circumstances,  and 
consented  to  profess  themselves  Catholics ;  but  they  retracted 


MASSACRE  OF  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW.  149 

this  profession  as  soon  as  they  had  regained  their  liberty.  The 
natural  consequence  of  these  shocking  transactions  was,  that 
Charles  and  Catherine  were  universally  held  up  to  execration, 
excepting,  indeed,  in  the  courts  of  Madrid  and  Rome.  In  the 
latter  a  jubilee  was  proclaimed  by  Gregory  XIII.  to  celebrate 
what  he  termed  "  the  triumph  over  heresy." 

The  Huguenots,  who  were  at  first  paralyzed  with  horror,  soon 
regained  their  activity  and  flew  to  arms,  and  their  persecutors 
found  that,  instead  of  extirpating  heresy,  they  had  made  the 
heretics  desperate.  Rochelle  was  besieged  by  the  royal  army, 
but  was  defended  with  so  much  vigour  during  a  protracted  siege, 
that  the  duke  of  Anjou,  who  commanded  the  assailants,  found  it 
expedient  to  negotiate.  A  treaty,  bearing  date  July  6,  1573, 
was  concluded  with  the  whole  of  the  Huguenot  party. 

Charles  IX.  died  soon  after  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
a  prey  to  remorse.    His  death  is  thus  described  by  Markham : 

"  The  king's  health  now  rapidly  declined,  and  he  was  visibly 
hastening  to  the  grave.  He  had  never  been  quite  himself  since 
the  day  of  St.  Bartholomew.  His  complexion,  which  before 
was  pale,  was  now  often  flushed  ;  his  eyes  acquired  an  unnatural 
fierceness,  his  nights  were  restless  and  disturbed,  and  his  sleep 
unrefreshing.  As  his  disorder  increased,  every  symptom  was  ag- 
gravated. He  was  seldom  still  for  an  instant.  His  limbs  would 
at  one  moment  be  distorted  by  convulsive  twitches,  and  the  next 
so  stiff  that  he  could  not  bend  them ;  and  the  blood  would  ooze 
from  the  pores  of  his  skin.  His  physicians,  unable  to  compre- 
hend his  disorder,  affirmed  that  it  was  the  effect  of  poison,  or  of 
sorcery.  Nor  was  his  mind  less  agitated  than  his  bodily  frame. 
The  recollection  of  the  massacre  continually  haunted  him,  and 
he  was  frequently  overheard  bewailing  his  crime  with  bitter 
tears  and  groans.  Catherine,  who  thought  more  of  securing 
her  own  power  than  of  his  sufferings,  disturbed  his  dying  mo- 
ments by  making  him  give  her  a  commission  of  regency  for  the 
interval  which  must  ensue  between  his  death  and  the  return  of 
his  brother  the  king  of  Poland  into  France." 


»2 


150 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


DISCI    III. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  LEAGUE. 

[j—]  r"\J  HE  death  of  Charles  without  heirs  gave 
the  throne  of  France  to  Henry  III., 
the  favourite  son  of  Catherine,  (a.  d. 
1574.)  He  had  joined  in  all  her  plots 
i  and  persecutions,  had  been  the  com- 
mander of  forces  against  the  Huguenots 
.ut  in  the  field  of  battle,  and  their  virulent 
T=hP^'  persecutor  in  the  time  of  peace.  But 
\fe(k  in  his  progress  to  Poland,  the  coolness 
with  which  he  was  treated  by  the  princes 
of  Germany  had  served  to  show  him 
''A  the  horror  with  which  the  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew  was  viewed  by  all  but  the  slaves  of  Rome,  and 
he  never  after,  amidst  his  many  crimes  and  follies,  showed  him- 
self a  persecutor.     On  learning  the  news  of  his  brother's  death, 


FORMATION  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  LEAGUE.  151 

fearing  to  be  detained  by  the  Polish  nobles,  he  abandoned  his 
kingdom  secretly  ;  some  of  the  nobility  followed  him  beyond 
the  boundaries,  and  to  them  he  gave  an  indefinite  promise  of  re- 
turning at  some  future  period,  which  he  had  no  intention  to  per- 
form. The  Poles  eventually  elected  another  king,  and  Henry 
and  his  former  subjects  seemed  speedily  to  have  forgotten  the 
existence  of  each  other. 

In  his  earlier  years,  Henry  had  shown  some  traits  of  a  manly 
and  energetic  spirit,  but  all  traces  of  it  seemed  to  have  dis- 
appeared at  his  accession.  He  showed  from  the  very  beginning 
a  dislike  of  serious  occupations,  a  devotion  to  trifles  and  de- 
bauchery, and  a  total  abandonment  of  all  the  cares  of  govern- 
ment to  his  mother  and  his  favourites.  Catherine  encouraged 
these  dispositions,  which  allowed  her  to  gratify  her  insatiable 
thirst  of  dominion.  The  two  great  parties  by  which  the  king- 
dom was  divided  had  now  acquired  so  much  strength  and  con- 
sistency, that  impartiality  was  scarcely  possible ,  the  royal 
council  was  similarly  divided ;  the  president,  De  Thou,  treading 
in  the  steps  of  the  chancellor  De  l'Hopital,  recommended  that 
peace  should  be  established  on  the  basis  of  an  amnesty  for  the 
past,  and  a  toleration  of  the  Protestants  for  the  future  ;  the 
partisans  of  the  duke  of  Guise  would  be  contented  with  nothing 
short  of  a  total  extirpation  of  heresy.  The  queen,  as  usual, 
endeavoured  to  make  both  parties  subservient  to  her  purposes ; 
but  her  arts  had  been  too  often  practised  to  be  any  longer 
available,  and  both  parties  prepared  to  recommence  the  war,  if 
indeed  they  can  be  said  ever  to  have  laid  it  aside. 

The  duke  of  Alencon,  who  afterwards  obtained  the  title  of 
duke  of  Anjou,  and  the  king  of  Navarre,  had  been  restored  to 
liberty  by  Henry  immediately  after  his  arrival  in  France ;  but 
finding  themselves  exposed  to  suspicion,  and  deprived  of  all  in- 
terest in  the  state,  they  quitted  the  court  to  place  themselves  at 
the  head  of  the  politicians  and  the  Protestants.  The  war  was 
distinguished  by  no  great  exploit  on  either  side,  and  was  termi- 
nated by  a  peace,  in  which  more  favourable  conditions  were 
granted  to  the  Huguenots  than  they  had  hitherto  obtained. 
(a.  d.  1578.)  The  violent  Catholics,  headed  by  the  duke  of  Guise, 
loudly  protested  against  this  treaty,  which  they  deemed  subver- 
sive of  the  established  religion,  and  entered  into  an  alliance 
called  the  Holy  League,  in  defence  of  what  they  called  true 


152 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


Catholicity.  The  declared  objects  of  this  union  were  to  defend 
the  church,  the  king,  and  the  state;  its  effects  were  the  dis- 
honouring of  religion,  the  murder  of  the  king,  and  almost  the 
utter  ruin  of  the  nation.  As  soon  as  the  Huguenots  had  learned 
the  news  of  this  powerful  combination  for  their  destruction,  they 
prepared  to  defend  themselves,  and  stood  to  their  arms  in  every 
part  of  the  provinces.  Henry  III.,  after  some  vain  attempts 
to  remain  neutral,  embraced  the  party  of  the  league,  and  re- 
called the  edicts  of  toleration  which  he  had  lately  issued ;  but 
there  is  some  reason  to  doubt  his  sincerity  in  this  transaction  ; 
in  fact,  he  seems  to  have  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
league,  merely  to  exclude  the  duke  of  Guise  from  being  ap- 
pointed its  leader. 


■.V& 


ASSASSINATION  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GUISE.  153 


ASSASSINATION  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GUISE. 

HE  death  of  the  duke  of  An- 
jou,  and  the  improbability  of 
Henry's  ever  having  any  chil- 
dren, soon  made  the  members 
of  the  league  develop  their  real 
designs,  (a.  d.  1584.)  Henry 
of  Navarre,  according  to  the 
fundamental  laws  of  the  king- 
dom, was  the  next  heir  to  the 
crown  ;  but  as  he  was  only  related  to  the  king  in  the  fourteenth  de- 
gree, and  was  besides  a  Protestant,  Catherine  and  the  duke  of 
Guise  severally  laboured  to  prevent  his  succession.  Catherine 
resolved,  in  defiance  of  the  Salic  law,  to  procure  the  crown  for  the 
descendants  of  her  favourite  daughter,  the  duchess  of  Lorraine  ; 
the  duke  of  Guise,  with  duplicity  equal  to  her  own,  pretended  to 
join  in  her  design,  but  strenuously  laboured  to  procure  the  rich 
inheritance  for  himself.  The  clergy  were  the  foremost  in  exciting 
a  new  war ;  every  pulpit  resounded  with  declamations  on  the 
dangers  of  the  church  if  the  throne  were  possessed  by  a  Pro- 
testant ;  every  confession-box  became  the  means  of  secretly  whis- 
pering treason  into  the  ears  of  the  populace ;  and  the  press,  which 
was  almost  totally  in  the  hands  of  the  ecclesiastics,  produced  daily 
the  most  inflammatory  appeals  to  the  prejudices  and  bigotry  of 
the  nation.  In  these  invectives  the  king  was  not  spared ;  his 
severe  edicts  for  raising  new  taxes,  his  lavish  profusion  to  un- 
worthy favourites,  his  disgraceful  debaucheries,  and  the  hypo- 
critical grimace  which  he  substituted  for  devotion,  furnished 
ample  scope  for  satire ;  and  it  was  said  in  addition,  that  he  had 
formed  a  secret  alliance  with  the  king  of  Navarre  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Huguenots.  The  duke  of  Guise  was  the  main- 
spring of  all  these  complicated  movements ;  as  he  could  not 
openly  claim  the  crown  for  himself,  he  persuaded  the  old  cardi- 
nal of  Bourbon,  uncle  to  the  king  of  Navarre,  that  he  was  the 
20 


154  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

right  heir  to  the  crown,  in  consequence  of  his  nephew's  heresy. 
The  cardinal,  whom  contemporary  historians  briefly  but  em- 
phatically designate  an  old  fool,  was  easily  persuaded  to  assert 
his  chimerical  claim,  and  published  a  manifesto  declaring  himself 
chief  of  the  league.  Henry,  however,  could  not  be  persuaded 
to  set  aside  the  claims  of  his  cousin,  the  king  of  Navarre,  even 
though  that  prince  had  refused  to  come  near  the  court  after  he 
had  been  frequently  invited,  and  had  firmly  resisted  every  at- 
tempt made  to  persuade  him  to  change  his  religion. 

The  accession  of  the  king  of  Spain  to  the  league  became  the 
signal  for  renewing  the  war,  (a.  d.  1585  ;)  the  Protestants 
fought  no  longer  for  their  privileges,  but  for  their  existence ; 
the  duke  of  Guise  scarcely  concealed  his  designs  upon  the 
throne,  the  king  of  France  was  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  both 
factions,  and  was  in  equal  danger  from  the  success  of  either. 
This  is  generally  called  the  war  of  the  three  Henrys,  viz.  the 
king  of  France,  the  king  of  Navarre,  and  the  duke  of  Guise. 
The  most  extraordinary  of  all  the  matters  connected  with  this 
tedious  conflict  was  the  conduct  of  the  pope  ;  though  the  league 
was  professedly  intended  to  exalt  the  power  of  the  holy  see, 
Sextus  V.  looked  upon  it  as  a  rebellious  alliance,  equally  dan- 
gerous to  the  interests  of  royalty  and  religion.  Possessed  of 
as  proud  and  ambitious  a  spirit  as  any  pontiff  that  had  ever  held 
the  papal  throne,  he  reverenced  in  others  any  manifestations 
of  that  courage  and  vigour  which  formed  so  conspicuous  a  part 
of  his  own  character.  He  excommunicated  Henry  of  Navarre 
and  Queen  Elizabeth  ;  the  former  made  a  spirited  appeal  to  a 
general  council,  and  had  his  defiance  posted  on  the  gates  of  the 
Vatican ;  Elizabeth  excommunicated  the  pope  in  her  turn. 
When  Sextus  heard  of  those  instances  of  intrepidity,  he  de- 
clared, that,  though  heretics,  these  were  the  only  sovereigns  in 
Europe  that  deserved  to  wear  a  crown. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  private  sentiments  of  the 
pope,  his  bull  afforded  a  pretext  to  the  leaguers,  of  which  the 
duke  of  Guise  was  not  slow  in  availing  himself.  The  leaders  of 
the  sixteen  departments  into  which  Paris  was  divided,  the  entire 
mob  of  that  city,  all  the  clergy,  regular  and  secular,  were  on 
his  side ;  and  the  deposition  of  Henry  III.  was  an  object  openly 
avowed  by  his  partisans.  The  duke's  brother,  the  cardinal  of 
Guise,  declared  publicly  that  the  king  should  be  sent  into  a 


ASSASSINATION  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GUISE.  155 

monastery :  his  sister  the  duchess  of  Montpensier,  whom  Henry 
had  insulted  by  some  remarks  on  her  want  of  personal  beauty, 
exhibited  the  scissors  which  were  to  give  him  the  clerical  tonsure. 

Henry  of  Navarre  began  now  to  show  some  proofs  of  those 
noble  qualities,  which  have  since  deservedly  procured  for  him 
the  title  of  Great.  The  weakness  and  indecision  of  his  father 
had  shaken  the  confidence  of  the  Protestants  in  the  house  of 
Bourbon  ;  but  his  mother  had  redeemed  the  errors  of  her  hus- 
band ;  she  was  adored  by  her  subjects,  with  whom  she  loved  to 
reside,  far  from  the  intrigues  and  vices  of  the  court.  In  the  re- 
mote and  wild  districts  of  Bearne,  Henry  received  the  education 
of  a  hardy  mountaineer,  and  was  early  taught  to  encounter 
difficulties  and  dangers.  When  brought  to  court,  he  was  not 
proof  against  the  seductive  arts  by  which  Catherine  de  Medicis 
endeavoured  to  bring  him  over  to  her  party.  Indifferent  as  to 
the  means  by  which  her  ends  were  accomplished,  Catherine  la- 
boured with  some  success  to  lead  the  young  prince  into  habits 
of  debauchery,  in  order  that  she  might  rule  his  actions  by 
means  of  the  artful  mistresses  with  which  she  had  supplied  him. 
But  the  impending  dangers  of  the  league  woke  him  from  his 
dream  of  guilty  pleasure ;  he  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Protestant  party  when  its  fortunes  were  at  the  lowest  ebb ;  often 
defeated  but  never  conquered,  he  maintained  his  ground  amidst 
the  violence  of  enemies  and  the  insincerity  of  friends,  until  he 
finally  triumphed,  as  much  by  the  admiration  inspired  by  his 
moral  character  as  by  the  terror  of  his  arms. 

Catherine  made  some  ineffectual  efforts  to  prevent  this 
war  by  negotiation,  (a.  d.  1587,)  but  being  distrusted  by  both 
parties,  she  completely  failed.  The  royal  army,  under  the 
duke  of  Joyeuse,  an  unworthy  favourite  of  Henry's,  was  totally 
defeated  at  Contras  by  the  king  of  Navarre.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  duke  of  Guise  cut  to  pieces  an  army  of  Germans, 
who  had  invaded  France  to  make  a  diversion  in  favour  of  the 
Huguenots.  The  populace  of  Paris  were  so  intoxicated  with 
joy  at  the  news  of  the  victory  obtained  by  their  idol,  that 
Henry,  who  had  appeared  for  some  time  to  have  resigned  all 
care  of  the  state,  was  roused  from  his  lethargy  by  the  imminent 
peril  that  threatened  his  crown  and  life.  He  sent  an  express 
to  Guise,  forbidding  him  to  approach  Paris ;  but  the  duke,  pre- 
tending not  to  have  received  the  royal  mandate,  hastened  his 


156  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

approach  to  the  city,  and  was  received  there  with  all  the  ho- 
nours of  a  triumph,  (a.  d.  1588.)  In  order  to  reduce  the 
power  of  the  Sixteen,  Henry  introduced  a  body  of  his  Swiss 
guards  into  Paris,  but  the  citizens,  instigated  by  the  partisans 
of  Guise,  immediately  took  up  arms ;  the  shops  were  shut,  the 
alarm  bells  rung,  barricades  and  chains  were  drawn  across  the 
streets,  and  the  soldiers  driven  back  from  post  to  post,  until 
the  king  found  himself  and  his  attendants  closely  penned  up  in 
the  Louvre.  Henry  escaped  during  the  night,  leaving  the  duke 
of  Guise  in  full  possession  of  the  capital,  but  Catherine  re- 
mained behind  to  exert  her  arts  of  intrigue  in  bringing  about 
an  accommodation.  A  treaty  was  concluded,  which  neither 
party  intended  to  observe,  and  in  consequence  of  one  of  its 
stipulations,  an  assembly  of  the  states  was  ordered  to  be  held 
at  Blois.  The  debates  and  votes  in  this  assembly  sufficiently 
showed  the  dangerous  designs  entertained  by  the  duke  of  Guise, 
and  the  great  resources  that  he  possessed  for  their  accomplish- 
ment. To  proceed  against  him  for  high  treason  would  have 
been  absurd,  when  all  the  states  of  the  realm  were  in  his  fa- 
vour ;  open  war  would  certainly  terminate  in  the  king's  defeat ; 
nothing  then  remained  but  the  detestable  means  of  assassina- 
tion, and  this  Henry  determined  to  adopt.  A  letter  from  pope 
Sextus  greatly  contributed  to  confirm  his  resolution ;  his  holi- 
ness advised  the  king  "  to  render  himself  master  of  his  rebel- 
lious subjects  by  any  means  in  his  power."  Having  armed  nine 
of  his  most  trusty  followers  with  daggers,  Henry  sent  to  invite 
the  duke  of  Guise  to  a  speedy  conference  on  matters  of  the 
utmost  importance.  The  duke  hastened  to  obey ;  but  just  as 
he  was  about  to  enter  the  room  in  which  the  king  was,  the  as- 
sassins fell  on  him  altogether,  and  he  was  instantly  slain.  His 
brother,  the  cardinal,  shared  the  same  fate  on  the  following 
day.  Thus  fell,  in  the  prime  of  life,  two  men  whom  nature 
had  endowed  with  abilities  that  might  have  made  them  the 
brightest  ornaments  of  France,  but  which  bigotry  and  ambition 
had  rendered  useless  to  themselves  and  pernicious  to  the  nation. 
Henry  proceeded  from  the  scene  of  blood  to  his  mother's 
apartments,  and,  announcing  to  her  the  news,  said,  "  Now, 
madam,  I  am  indeed  a  king  ;"  she  heard  the  account  with  the 
utmost  indifference,  but  advised  him  to  take  advantage  of  the 
confusion  which  the  event  would  cause  in  the  league,  and  secure 


ASSASSINATION  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GUISE. 


159 


Paris.  But  Henry,  believing  all  danger  removed  by  the  death 
of  his  greatest  enemy,  relapsed  into  his  ordinary  indolence. 
Soon  after,  Catherine,  overwhelmed  with  sorrow  at  the  disap- 
pointment of  all  her  schemes,  and  broken  down  by  witnessing 
the  ruin  which  her  profligate  ambition  had  brought  on  her  chil- 
dren, felt  herself  sinking  into  an  unhonoured  grave.  Her  last 
advice  to  Henry  was  to  establish  liberty  of  conscience,  and  to 
enter  into  close  alliance  with  Henry  of  Navarre.  She  died 
unlamented  and  almost  forgotten  :  the  dissolution  of  one  who 
had  played  so  prominent  a  part  was  regarded  everywhere  as  an 
ordinary  incident  of  trifling  importance. 


160 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


ASSASSINATION  OF  HENRY  III. 


NSTEAD  of  «  finding  himself  indeed 
a  king,"  Henry,  in  consequence  of 
his  crime,  was  on  the  brink  of  ruin, 
members  of  the  league  openly  threw  off 
their  allegiance,  and  choosing  as  their  leader 
the  duke  de  Mayenne,  the  brother  of  the  mur- 
dered duke,  gave  him  the  pompous  title  of  "lieu- 
tenant-general of  the  royal  state  and  crown  of  France,"  which 
was  in  fact  giving  him  the  authority  of  a  sovereign  without 
the  name.  Most  of  the  provinces  and  large  cities  of  France 
declared  in  favour  of  the  league,  and  Henry  saw  no  hopes  of 
preserving  his  authority  unless  he  obtained  the  assistance  of 
his  cousin  of  Navarre.  That  prince  suspected  the  king's  sin- 
cerity, for  once  unjustly,  and  remembered  too  well  the  share 
that  Henry  had  taken  in  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  to 
trust  him  too  readily.  But  their  natural  necessities  compelled 
both  to  bury  their  former  animosities  in  oblivion  ;  the  two  Hen- 
rys had  an  interview  at  the  castle  of  Plessis  les  Tours,  and  en- 
tered into  a  close  alliance  which  was  never  afterwards  violated. 
(a.  d.  1589.)  Henry  III.  was  now  superior  to  his  enemies  ;  he 
advanced  to  Paris  and  laid  close  siege  to  the  city  ;  the  inhabi- 
tants were  unprepared  for  his  attacks — they  had  but  a  small 
stock  of  provisions  and  an  inadequate  garrison ;  the  duke  de 
Mayenne  was  unable  to  collect  an  army  for  their  relief;  every 
thing  seemed  to  promise  a  speedy  surrender,  when  an  unex- 
pected event  produced  a  new  and  total  revolution. 

A  monk,  named  James  Clement,  was  persuaded  by  his  own 
fanaticism,  aided  by  the  artful  suggestions  of  some  of  the 
leaguers,  that  he  would  perform  a  meritorious  action  by  killing 
a  monarch  who  was  an  enemy  to  the  church.  For  this  purpose 
he  resolved  to  go  on  to  St.  Cloud,  where  the  king  resided,  and 


ASSASSINATION  OF  HENRY  III.  163 

under  the  pretence  of  giving  him  a  letter,  stab  him  in  the  midst 
of  his  guards.  Never  did  an  assassin  display  so  much  intre- 
pidity ;  on  his  road  he  met  La  Guesle  and  his  brother,  who 
were  going  to  join  the  royal  army;  he  was  by  them  conveyed 
to  the  camp,  and  spent  the  night  of  his  arrival  in  their  tent. 
He  supped  gayly  with  La  Guesle's  followers,  retorted  with  con- 
siderable humour  the  jokes  passed  on  his  monkish  habit,  readily 
answered  every  question  put  to  him,  and,  after  leaving  the 
table,  spent  the  night  in  a  profound  sleep.  On  the  following 
morning  he  was  introduced  to  the  king,  and  presented  his  let- 
ters ;  while  Henry  was  engaged  in  looking  at  them,  Clement 
stabbed  him  with  a  knife  which  he  had  concealed  in  his  sleeve; 
the  king  immediately  called  out  that  he  was  murdered,  and, 
drawing  out  the  knife  from  the  wound,  struck  the  assassin  in 
the  face ;  at  the  same  time  the  attendants  despatched  him  with 
their  swords.  The  death  of  Clement  prevented  any  discovery 
of  those  by  whom  he  had  been  instigated  to  the  atrocious  deed ; 
but  it  appears  very  probable  that  the  family  of  Lorraine  were 
those  who  had  most  share  in  the  contrivance,  in  revenge  for  the 
murder  of  the  duke  of  Guise.  When  Henry  found  that  his 
wound  was  mortal,  he  prepared  for  death  with  much  apparent 
resignation.  He  took  an  affectionate  farewell  of  the  king  of 
Navarre,  whom  he  declared  his  successor,  after  having  strenu- 
ously exhorted  him  to  conciliate  his  future  subjects  by  embrac- 
ing the  Catholic  religion.  Having  then  confessed  himself  with 
much  apparent  devotion,  he  expired  in  the  38th  year  of  his  age 
and  the  15th  of  his  reign.  With  him  ended  the  house  of 
Valois,  which  had  held  the  throne  of  France  for  261  years. 
During  their  dynasty,  the  several  independent  principalities 
into  which  Gaul  had  been  so  long  divided  were  consolidated 
into  the  single  compact  kingdom  of  France  ;  but  this  advantage 
was  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  establishment  of  arbi- 
trary principles  of  government,  and  the  continual  weakening 
of  the  influence  previously  possessed  by  the  assemblies  of  the 
states. 

The  news  of  the  assassination  of  Henry  III.  had  been  re- 
ceived at  Paris  with  odious  joy.  It  was  celebrated  by  bonfires 
and  other  marks  of  rejoicing.  The  duchess  of  Montpensier 
got  into  a  carriage  with  her  mother,  and  passing  through  the 
streets,  called  out  to  the  people,  from  time  to  time,  "  Good 


164  INCIDENTS  OP  MODERN  HISTORY. 

news  !  good  news  !"  The  pulpits  resounded  with  eulogies  on 
the  glorious  martyr,  James  Clement.  Crowds  ran  to  see  his 
mother,  a  poor  rustic,  whom  the  duchess  of  Montpensier  had 
brought  to  Paris ;  and  the  sixteen,  in  their  harangues,  applied 
to  her  these  words  of  Scripture,  «  Happy  is  the  womb  which 
has  borne  thee,  and  blessed  are  the  breasts  which  have  given 
thee  milk."  The  Parisians,  however,  demanded  a  king.  May- 
enne  not  daring  to  take  the  crown  himself,  because  he  knew 
the  people,  as  well  as  the  king  of  Spain,  were  opposed  to  his 
wishes,  caused  the  old  cardinal  de  Bourbon  to  be  proclaimed, 
under  the  name  of  Charles  X.  »  He  was,"  says  L'Etoile,  "the 
true  king  of  the  theatre  and  of  painting,"  and  was,  at  that 
time,  the  prisoner  of  Henry  IV.  For  himself,  Mayenne  was 
content  to  bear  the  title  of  lieutenant-general  of  the  kingdom, 
which,  in  fact,  placed  in  his  hands  all  the  power  of  the  state. 
He  then  invited  the  parliament,  the  provinces,  and  the  nobility 
to  deliver  their  king  from  captivity,  and  to  stand  forward  in 
defence  of  their  religion.  At  the  same  time,  he  established  a 
secret  understanding  with  the  royal  army,  and  endeavoured  to 
gain  over  both  the  officers  and  soldiers. 

As  with  Henry  III.  the  race  of  Valois,  by  the  deed  of  Cle- 
ment, was  extinguished,  the  direct  line  of  the  Capets  ceased 
by  the  death  of  the  three  brothers  without  male  issue.  The 
next  heir  to  the  throne  was  Henry  de  Bourbon,  king  of  Na- 
varre, related  to  the  late  king  in  the  twenty-second  degree  ; 
but  the  name  which  he  bore  as  a  Huguenot  was,  in  the  opinion 
of  many,  enough  to  exclude  him  for  ever  from  the  throne.  The 
Catholics,  who  would  have  deemed  it  a  crime  to  conspire  against 
Henry  III.,  their  legitimate  king,  scrupled  not  to  repulse 
Henry  IV.  altogether,  or,  at  all  events,  till  he  should  have  re- 
entered the  bosom  of  the  church.  One  other  thought  influenced 
them  generally,  or  at  least  a  great  number  of  them  ;  they  had 
an  idea  of  making  him  purchase  their  adhesion,  or,  perhaps  of 
creating  small  sovereignties,  in  particular  cities  and  provinces. 


BATTLE   OF   IVRI. 


167 


BATTLE  OF   IVRI. 


HE  death  of  Henry  III.  (a.  d.  1589)  re- 
lieved Paris  from  the  imminent  dangers 
to  which  it  had  been  exposed;  the  title 
of  Henry  IV.  was  indeed  acknowledged 
by  the  principal  leaders  of  the  besieg- 
ing army,  but  his  religion  prevented 
them  from  warmly  espousing  his  cause ; 
the  greater  part  drew  off  their  forces, 
and  Henry  was  compelled  to  raise  the 
siege,  which  his  diminished  forces  could  no  longer  continue. 
The  duke  of  Mayenne,  who  might  have  assumed  the  title  of 
king,  chose  rather  to  proclaim  the  cardinal  of  Bourbon,  though 
he  remained  a  prisoner ;  and  having  collected  a  numerous  band 
of  leaguers,  he  pursued  Henry  on  his  retreat  to  Normandy. 

Henry  IV.  again  approached  the  capital ;  and  Mayenne  set  out 
to  dispute  the  road  with  him.  The  two  armies  met  near  Dreux, 
in  the  plain  of  Ivri.  By  daybreak  of  the  following  morning, 
the  preparations  for  battle  were  complete  ;  but  Henry  made  none 
for  retreat — "No  other  place  of  retreat,"  he  said,  "than  the 
field  of  battle."  The  armies,  on  both  sides,  betook  themselves 
to  prayer.  Henry,  advancing  on  horseback,  before  his  troops, 
armed  at  all  points,  but  with  head  uncovered,  exclaimed: — "Oh 
Lord !  thou  knowest  my  secret  thoughts ;  if  it  be  good  for  my 
people  that  I  should  reign,  defend  thou  my  cause,  and  prosper 
my  arms."  Then,  when  the  acclamations  which  his  words  pro- 
duced had  subsided, — "  My  children,"  he  cried  to  his  soldiers, 
"if  you  should  lose  sight  of  our  standards,  follow  my  white 
plume;  you  will  find  it  always  on  the  road  to  honour."  After 
these  words,  he  gave  the  signal  to  charge;  and  the  army  of 
Mayenne,  though  far  superior  in  point  of  numbers,  was  almost 
entirely  destroyed,  (a.  d.  1590.)  The  conqueror  marched  di- 
rectly upon  Paris,  which  he  invested  with  his  troops :  and,  about 


168 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


the  same  time,  his  rival  and  prisoner,  the  old  cardinal  de  Bour- 
bon, died.  This  prince  had  always  recognised  the  claims  of  his 
nephew  to  the  throne ;  but  Henry,  knowing  the  weakness  of  his 
character,  had  feared  that  he  might  become  an  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  the  leaguers,  if  they  should  get  possession  of  him. 
His  own  followers  gave  the  king  nearly  as  much  trouble  as 
his  enemies ;  the  Catholic  royalists  detested  the  Huguenots ;  the 
Protestants  returned  the  hatred,  and  were,  besides,  divided 
among  themselves;  the  princes  of  the  blood  were  either  too 
young  to  exert  any  influence,  or  had  ranged  themselves  under 
the  banners  of  the  league,  and  Henry  found  himself  engaged  in 
this  dangerous  war  almost  solely  dependent  on  his  own  personal 
resources.  The  king  of  Spain  was  anxious  to  obtain  the  crown 
of  France  for  his  daughter,  Clara  Eugenia;  the  Protestant 
princes  of  Europe,  dreading  the  additional  power  that  would 
thus  be  added  to  the  Spanish  monarchy,  already  formidable, 
resolved  to  support  the  cause  of  Henry  ;  the  queen  Elizabeth 
especially  assisted  him  with  money  and  warlike  stores. 


HENRY    IV. 


SIEGE   OF   PARIS 


169 


SIEGE  OF  PARTS. 


HESE  aids,  and  the  confidence 
inspired  by  several  successive  tri- 
umphs, soon  enabled  Henry  to 
undertake  the  siege  of  Paris, 
(a.  d.  1590,)  where  the  hatred  of 
the  leaguers  displayed  itself  with 
more  violence,  in  proportion  as 
the  king  showed  himself  more 
worthy  of  affection.  Though  their 
shadow  of  a  king,  the  cardinal  de  Bourbon,  had  lately  died,  and 
they  had  not  selected  any  other  in  his  place,  so  far  were  they 
from  thinking  of  submitting  to  their  rightful  sovereign,  that  the 
doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  declared  that  Henry,  being  a  relapsed 
heretic,  could  not  receive  the  crown  even  thouglt  he  should  obtain 
absolution,  and  this  shameful  decree  was  confirmed  by  the  par- 
liament. In  the  mean  time,  Paris,  being  closely  blockaded  and 
ill  supplied  with  provisions,  was  attacked  by  all  the  horrors  of  a 
severe  famine.  Bread  was  made  of  bones  ground  into  powder, 
food  the  most  revolting  was  eagerly  sought  after,  multitudes 
dropped  daily  dead  in  the  street  from  extreme  starvation,  but 
no  one  spoke  of  yielding.  The  clergy  had  promised  a  crown 
of  martyrdom  to  all  who  died  in  the  cause  of  the  church,  and 
their  deluded  followers  submitted  to  every  privation  without  a 
murmur.  Still,  had  Henry  not  been  moved  with  a  paternal 
pity  for  his  frantic  subjects,  he  might  have  taken  Paris  by  as- 
sault; but  when  urged  to  give  orders  for  the  purpose,  he  replied 
— "  I  had  rather  lose  Paris,  than  get  possession  of  it  when  ruined 
by  the  death  of  so  many  persons."  He  gave  the  fugitives  from 
the  city  a  safe  passage  through  his  camp,  and  permitted  his 
officers  and  soldiers  to  send  in  refreshments  to  their  friends.  By 
this  lenity  he  indeed  lost  the  fruit  of  his  labours  for  the  present, 
but  he  gained  the  approbation  of  his  own  conscience  and  the 
22  P 


170  INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 

admiration  of  posterity.  The  prince  of  Parma,  who  commanded 
the  Spanish  army  in  Flanders,  advanced  to  the  relief  of  Paris 
when  the  citizens  were  at  the  very  point  of  despair ;  by  a  series 
of  masterly  movements,  he  disconcerted  the  efforts  made  by 
Henry  to  bring  on  an  engagement,  relieved  the  garrison,  and 
returned  to  continue  his  wars  with  the  Dutch  ;  after  having  per- 
formed this  essential  service  to  the  league  with  scarcely  the  loss 
of  a  man.  The  following  year  Henry  met  a  similar  disappoint- 
ment at  the  siege  of  Rouen,  where  the  escape  of  the  prince  of 
Parma  was  effected  under  such  difficult  circumstances,  that 
Henry  could  scarcely  believe  the  evidence  of  his  senses,  when 
he  found  that  the  hostile  troops  were  beyond  his  reach.  Death 
soon  after  delivered  the  king  from  this  formidable  rival;  the 
prince  died  in  Flanders,  at  the  age  of  forty-seven  ;  his  military 
talents  and  great  virtues  would  have  brought  the  United  Pro- 
vinces again  under  the  yoke  of  Spain,  had  it  been  possible  to 
find  a  remedy  for  despotism  and  persecution. 

The  conduct  of  the  Sixteen  at  Paris  contributed  much  to 
weaken  the  influence  of  the  league ;  these  hot-headed  rebels 
pretended  to  give  the  law  both  to  the  duke  de  Mayenne  and  the 
parliament.  When  a  man  whom  they  wished  to  destroy  was 
acquitted,  they  suddenly  broke  out  into  the  most  furious  excesses, 
and  actually  hanged  three  of  the  magistrates  who  had  been 
judges  at  the  trial,  among  whom  was  Brisson,  the  first  presi- 
dent of  the  parliament.  The  duke  de  Mayenne  acted  on  this 
occasion  with  a  promptitude  and  decision  foreign  to  his  character ; 
he  marched  to  Paris  at  the  head  of  his  most  trusty  followers, 
delivered  the  most  violent  of  the  murderers  to  the  executioner, 
deprived  the  Sixteen  of  the  Bastile,  which  had  been  their  prin- 
cipal stronghold,  and  thus  finally  crushed  a  detestable  faction, 
which  derived  its  whole  strength  from  the  madness  of  fanaticism. 
But  these  favourable  events  were  not  sufficient  to  put  Henry  in 
possession  of  the  kingdom,  while  he  professed  a  religion  odious 
to  the  majority  of  his  subjects;  his  most  faithful  followers, 
Protestant  as  well  as  Catholic,  recommended  him  to  change  his 
religion,  and  Henry  only  delayed  through  fear  of  offending 
Elizabeth  and  the  Protestant  princes  of  Germany.  At  length, 
finding  that  the  states-general  had  proceeded  so  far  as  to  offer 
the  crown  to  the  Spanish  infanta,  on  condition  of  her  marrying 
a  French  prince,  Henry  saw  that  further  delay  might  bring  ruin 


SOLDIERS   OF    IIENRT   IV.   GIVING    PROVISIONS   TO   THE   BESIEGED    TARISI  UN'S. 


SIEGE   OF   PARIS. 


173 


on  his  cause,  and  publicly  abjured  Protestantism  in  the  church 
of  St.  Denis,  (a.  d.  1593.)  Though  this  conversion  was  any 
thing  but  sincere,  it  was  followed  by  the  most  beneficial  effects. 
The  nobility  in  general  hastened  to  reconcile  themselves  to  a 
king  whose  character  they  respected,  and  most  of  those  who  still 
held  out  only  did  so  in  hopes  of  receiving  some  reward  for  re- 
turning to  their  allegiance.  The  duke  de  Mayenne  and  some 
few  of  the  more  violent  leaguers,  however,  obstinately  refused 
to  acknowledge  the  king,  until  he  had  received  absolution  from 
the  pope;  the  bigoted  clergy  preached  with  their  accustomed 
vehemence  against  the  man  of  Beam,  as  they  still  called  their 
sovereign ;  but  the  efforts  of  some  men  of  genius  who  had  joined 
the  royal  cause  weakened  the  force  of  their  invectives.  Several 
ingenious  writings  against  the  follies  and  absurdities  of  these 
ignorant  bigots,  especially  the  Menippean  satire,  covered  them 
with  such  merited  ridicule  that  they  found  their  declamations 
unheeded  and  neglected.  At  length  Paris  opened  its  gates  to 
Henry,  (a.  d.  1594,)  and  found  in  him  not  a  vindictive  conqueror, 
but  a  paternal  sovereign. 


p2 


174  INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 


ASSASSINATION  OF  HENRY  IV. 

^E  are  told  by  Sully,  that  Henry  meditated  the 
formation  of  a  Christian  republic  in  Europe ;  it 
was  proposed  to  divide  Europe  between  fifteen 
sovereigns,  none  of  whom  should  be  permitted  to 
make  any  new  acquisition,  but  should  form  alto- 
gether an  association  for  maintaining  a  mutual  balance  and 
preserving  peace.  This  project  was  one  of  very  questionable 
utility,  and  at  all  events  could  never  be  realized ;  his  second 
object,  to  set  bounds  to  the  ambition  of  the  house  of  Austria, 
both  in  Germany  and  Italy,  was  more  practicable  and  more  im- 
mediately useful.  He  had  already  made  the  necessary  prepa- 
rations for  this  enterprise,  when  the  emperor,  Rodolph  II., 
furnished  him  with  a  pretence  for  commencing  the  war,  by 
sequestrating  the  duchies  of  Cleves,  Juliers,  and  Bergue,  after 
the  death  of  the  last  duke.  Henry  entered  into  a  league  with 
the  elector  of  Brandenburg  and  the  count  Palatine  of  Neuburg, 
who  both  pretended  to  the  succession.  The  Protestants  of  Ger- 
many, always  justly  suspicious  of  Austrian  treachery,  formed 
a  new  alliance  for  the  protection  of  their  civil  and  religious 
liberties,  of  which  Henry  was  privately  the  contriver,  and  pub- 
licly the  chief  support.  The  pope,  the  republic  of  Venice,  and 
the  confederacy  of  the  Swiss  cantons,  all  led  by  separate  inte- 
rests, were  united  in  the  common  resolution  of  checking  the 
imperial  power. 

Never  was  any  enterprise  better  concerted.  Henry  was  to 
march  into  Germany  at  the  head  of  forty  thousand  excellent 
soldiers.  Sully  had  provided  ample  resources  for  the  expenses 
of  the  army;  the  allies  were  all  eager  to  perform  their  several 
stipulations.  On  the  other  side,  the  emperor  was  immersed  in 
the  study  of  astrology,  and  a  vain  search  after  the  philosopher's 
stone ;  his  only  supporter,  the  king  of  Spain,  was  the  slave  of 
bigoted  inquisitors  and  avaricious  favourites;  both  were  desti- 


HENRY     IV. 


ASSASSINATION   OF   HENRY   IV.  177 

tute  of  wisdom,  confidence,  and  resources.  Henry  was  impatient 
to  join  the  army,  but  was  detained  much  against  his  will,  to 
gratify  the  queen  with  the  vain  ceremony  of  a  coronation,  which 
she  insisted  on  with  the  most  eager  violence.  During  the  fes- 
tivities which  took  place  on  this  occasion,  the  mind  of  Henry 
was  distracted  by  the  most  gloomy  forebodings,  and  he  more 
than  once  felt  that  "coming  events  cast  their  shadows  before," 
in  fearful  anticipations  of  a  sudden  and  violent  death.  His 
apprehensions  were  fatally  fulfilled.  Passing  along  a  street,  his 
coach  was  entangled  in  a  crowd,  and  a  desperate  fanatic,  named 
Ravaillac,  took  that  opportunity  of  stabbing  him.  The  assassin 
mounted  on  the  hind  wheel  of  the  coach,  and  plunged  a  knife 
into  the  king's  bosom,  who  was  so  intent  on  the  perusal  of  a 
letter  that  he  did  not  even  see  his  murderer.  The  courtiers 
who  were  in  the  coach  drew  up  the  windows,  and  ordered  the 
driver  to  return  to  the  Louvre,  but  life  was  extinct  before  they 
reached  the  palace.  Thus  died,  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven,  a 
prince  worthy  of  immortality,  against  whom  more  than  fifty 
conspiracies  were  formed  by  his  contemporaries,  but  whose  me- 
mory has  been  hallowed  by  the  admiration  of  posterity,  and 
whose  reign  might  serve  as  a  model  to  all  princes  who  love  their 
subjects.  Let  us  bury  in  oblivion  a  few  spots  which  stain  his 
private  life,  weaknesses  which  are  unhappily  too  common  to  he- 
roic minds,  and  honour  him  for  the  clemency  which  he  showed 
to  his  inveterate  enemies,  the  wisdom  with  which  he  tranquillized 
a  land  distracted  by  civil  wars  for  nearly  half  a  century,  and 
the  enlightened  toleration  of  which  he  gave  a  bright  example 
himself,  and  recommended  the  practice  to  his  successors.  Much 
of  the  glory,  both  of  the  public  works  that  Henry  executed,  and 
those  still  greater  which  he  had  projected,  undoubtedly  belongs 
to  Sully ;  but  it  is  no  small  praise  to  have  selected  such  an  ad- 
viser, and  to  have  borne  with  patience  the  reproofs  which  Sully 
frequently  gave  him  with  a  boldness  almost  republican.  The 
king  was  happy  in  possessing  such  a  minister,  and  the  minister 
was  as  happy  in  having  such  a  king.  The  nation  was  still  more 
fortunate  in  enjoying  such  a  rare  combination  as  a  virtuous 
sovereign  and  a  patriotic  administration. 

Mary  de  Medicis,  the  queen,  now  became  regent.     The  first 
care  of  the  regent,  after  having  secured  her  own  authority  and 
the  throne  of  her  son,  was  to  punish  the  assassin  of  the  late  king. 
23 


178  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

This  was  a  duty  which  she  owed  to  mankind ;  but  humanity 
shudders  to  recall  the  manner  in  which  it  was  fulfilled.  Francis 
Ravaillac,  beneath  whose  hand  Henry  IV.  perished,  seems  to 
have  been  a  gloomy  enthusiast,  who  had  no  great  or  settled  object 
to  gain  by  becoming  a  regicide.  It  was  natural  to  suspect  that  he 
might  have  accomplices.  To  detect  them,  if  such  were  in  exist- 
ence, was  most  desirable.  None,  however,  were  discovered ;  but 
the  wretched  prisoner  was  put  to  the  torture  in  order  to  make 
him  disclose  the  names  of  his  companions  in  guilt.  He  was  first 
sworn;  and  then  the  dreadful  engine  called  "the  brodequin,"  a 
sort  of  boot,  was  produced.  His  legs  being  inserted  in  the  bro- 
dequin, wedges  were  introduced  and  driven  down.  The  most 
dreadful  anguish  was  inflicted  as  they  were  tightened,  and  force 
continued  to  be  applied  till  the  limbs  were  crushed,  and  the  suf- 
ferer fainted.  While  he  retained  his  senses,  a  minister  of  reli- 
gion was  in  constant  attendance  to  heighten  the  horror  of  the 
moment,  by  telling  the  victim  that  the  exquisite  misery  he  then 
experienced  was  trifling  in  comparison  with  that  which  awaited 
him  in  the  world  to  come,  when  his  sinful  spirit  should  be  dis- 
missed from  this.  Not  merely  once  was  this  attempt  made  on  his 
conscience,  but  repeatedly  was  the  question  applied.  No  confes- 
sion, however  could  be  wrung  from  him,  though  he  was  continu- 
ally assured  that  for  him  there  was  no  pardon  in  another  state  of 
being,  unless  he  named  those  who  had  prompted  his  crime.  It 
almost  moves  our  admiration,  to  find  that,  thus  pursued,  he  had 
the  resolution  to  abstain  from  seeking  a  momentary  respite  from 
agony  by  making  a  false  confession ;  but  to  this  he  could  not-  be 
subdued.  Other  men,  in  the  like  melancholy  circumstances, 
have  been  unable  to  resist  the  brutal  importunities  of  those  about 
them,  and  in  their  maddening  throbs  have  breathed  accusations 
against  all  they  were  desired  to  inculpate,  and  the  guiltless  have 
in  consequence  been  sacrificed.  In  numerous  instances,  poor 
wretches  have  accused  themselves  of  holding  communion  with 
the  devil,  and  described  minutely  the  various  shapes  in  which, 
as  they  said,  he  had  appeared  to  them,  and  the  worship  they 
were  accustomed  to  offer  to  his  infernal  majesty.  Bernard  de 
Gue",  it  has  been  seen,  produced  to  his  judges,  while  suffering 
from  being  exposed  to  a  fire,  two  bones,  which  had,  he  said, 
been  extracted  by  magic  from  his  heels  ;  and  Americ  de  Villiers 
declared  to  his  tormentors,  when  tortured,  that  he  had  person- 


ASSASSINATION   OF   HENRY   IV. 


179 


EXECUTION    OF    RAVAILLAC. 


ally  taken  part  in  the  crucifixion  of  the  Redeemer.  With  equal 
ease  might  Ravaillac  have  purchased  a  respite  from  intolerable 
agony,  by  naming  innocent  persons  as  his  accomplices.  To  this 
weakness,  in  his  greatest  extremity,  the  unhappy  victim  was 
never  brought.  He  was  at  length  sentenced  to  a  horrible  death. 
Justice,  throwing  aside  all  moderation  and  dignity,  proceeded 
with  insane  ferocity,  not  merely  to  destroy  the  unhappy  culprit, 
but  the  house  in  which  he  had  lived  was  razed  to  the  ground; 
and  it  was  ordered,  that,  within  fifteen  days  after  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  sentence,  his  relations,  who  were  not  shown  in 
any  way  to  have  participated  in  his  crime,  should  "  be  banished 
by  sound  of  trumpet  from  the  kingdom,  and  forbidden  ever  to 
return,  under  pain  of  being  hanged  and  strangled,  without  other 
process  of  law."  The  miserable  Ravaillac,  no  longer  sustained 
by  the  enthusiasm  which  had  carried  him  away  in  the  first  in- 
stance to  an  outrage  so  dreadful,  now  recalled  the  crime  he  had 
perpetrated  with  horror.  He  was  carried  in  a  cart  to  Notre 
Dame,  there  to  ask  pardon  of  the  Almighty  for  the  dreadful 
deed  he  had  committed,  and  thence  taken  to  the  Place  de  Greve, 
where  his  right  hand  was  burned  from  his  body  by  sulphur,  his 
limbs  were  torn  with  pincers,  and  melted  lead,  boiling  oil,  and 


180 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


flaming  rosin  were  poured  on  his  wounds.  The  infliction  was 
long  protracted,  and  the  groans  and  struggles  of  the  culprit  are 
said  to  have  been  witnessed  with  joy  by  the  populace.  He  was 
finally  attached  to  four  horses,  which,  pulling  in  opposite  direc- 
tions, at  length  terminated  his  existence,  by  tearing  his  body  to 
pieces.  Fragments  of  his  corpse  were  then  seized  by  the  excited 
crowd.  Portions  of  it  were  preserved,  but  bonfires  were  made 
in  several  parts  of  Paris  to  consume  the  quarters  of  the  criminal, 
which  were  reduced  to  ashes,  amidst  the  furious  execrations  of 
the  frantic  multitude. 


& 


^^^SB^^^^ffi^^SES^ 


ACCESSION  OF  JAMES  I. 


183 


ACCESSION  OF  JAMES  I. 


HE  accession  of  the  family  of  Stuart  to  the 
^  throne  of  England  forms  a  memorable  era 
in  the  history  of  Great  Britain.  It  gave 
birth  to  a  struggle  between  the  king  and 
parliament  that  repeatedly  threw  the  whole 
island  into  convulsions,  and  which  was  never 
fully  composed  until  the  final  expulsion  of 
the  royal  family. 
The  English  throne  being  left  vacant  by  the  death  of  Eliza- 
beth, who  with  her  latest  breath  had  declared  that  she  wished 
to  be  succeeded  by  her  nearest  kinsman,  the  king  of  Scots,  or 
who  in  her  dying  moments  had  made  signs  to  that  purpose, 
James  was  immediately  proclaimed  king  of  England  by  the 
lords  of  the  privy-council.  He  was  great-grandson  of  Margaret, 
eldest  daughter  of  Henry  VII.,  so  that,  on  the  failure  of  the  male 
line  of  the  house  of  Tudor,  his  hereditary  title  remained  un- 
questionable. The  crown  of  England,  therefore,  passed  from 
the  family  of  Tudor  to  that  of  Stuart,  with  as  much  tranquil- 
lity as  ever  it  was  transmitted  from  father  to  son.  People  of 
all  ranks,  forgetting  their  ancient  hostilities  with  Scotland,  and 


184 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


their  aversion  against  the  dominion  of  strangers,  testified  their 
satisfaction  with  louder  acclamations  than  were  usual  at  the 
accession  even  of  their  native  princes.  They  foresaw  greater 
advantages  resulting  from  a  perpetual  alliance  with  Scotland, 
than  inconveniencies  from  submitting  to  a  sovereign  of  that 
kingdom.  And  by  this  junction  of  its  whole  collective  force, 
Great  Britain  has  risen  to  a  degree  of  power  and  consequence 
in  Europe,  which  Scotland  and  England,  destined  by  their  po- 
sition to  form  one  vigorous  monarchy,  could  never  have  attained 
as  separate  and  hostile  kingdoms. 


THE  GUNPOWDER  PLOT. 


185 


ARREST    OF    QUIDO    FAWKES. 


THE   GUNPOWDER  PLOT. 


URING   the   season    of  peace   and 
tranquillity  which  followed  James's 
accession,  (a.  d.  1605,)  was  brought 
to  light  one  of  the  most  diabolical 
of  which  there  is  any  record  in  the  his- 
mankind.      The  conspiracy  to  which 
illude  is  the  gunpowder  treason.     A 
scheme  so  infernally  dark  will  require  some  elucidation. 

The  Roman  Catholics  in  general  were  much  disappointed, 
24  Q2 


186  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

and  even  exasperated,  by  the  king's  conduct  in  religious  mat- 
ters. He  -was  not  only  the  son  of  the  unfortunate  Mary,  whose 
life  they  believed  to  have  been  sacrificed  to  their  cause ;  but, 
in  order  to  quiet  opposition,  and  make  his  accession  to  the 
throne  of  England  more  easy,  he  had  given  them  hopes  that  he 
would  tolerate  their  religion.  They  therefore  expected  great 
favour  and  indulgence  under  his  government.  But  they  soon 
discovered  their  mistake ;  and,  equally  surprised  and  enraged, 
when  they  found  James  had  resolved  to  execute  the  rigorous 
laws  enacted  against  them,  they  determined  on  vengeance. 
Some  of  the  most  zealous  of  the  party,  under  the  direction  of 
Garnet,  the  superior  of  the  Jesuits  in  England,  conspired  to 
exterminate,  at  one  blow,  the  most  powerful  of  their  enemies  in 
the  kingdom ;  and  in  consequence  of  that  blow  to  re-establish 
the  Catholic  faith.  Their  conspiracy  had  for  its  object  the 
destruction  of  the  king  and  parliament.  For  this  purpose, 
they  lodged  thirty-six  barrels  of  gunpowder  in  a  vault  beneath 
the  House  of  Lords,  usually  let  as  a  coal-cellar,  and  which  had 
been  hired  by  Percy,  a  near  relation  of  the  family  of  Northum- 
berland, and  one  of  the  original  conspirators.  The  time  fixed 
for  the  execution  of  the  plot  was  the  fifth  of  November,  the 
day  appointed  for  the  meeting  of  the  parliament,  when  the 
king,  queen,  and  prince  of  Wales  were  expected  to  be  in  the 
house,  together  with  the  principal  nobility  and  gentry.  The 
rest  of  the  royal  family  were  to  be  seized,  and  all  despatched, 
except  the  princess  Elizabeth,  James's  youngest  daughter,  yet 
an  infant,  who  was  to  be  raised  to  the  throne,  under  the  care 
of  a  Catholic  protector. 

The  destined  day  at  length  drew  nigh,  and  the  conspirators 
were  filled  with  the  strongest  assurance  of  success.  Nor  with- 
out reason  ;  for,  although  the  horrid  secret  had  been  communi- 
cated to  above  twenty  persons,  no  remorse,  no  pity,  no  fear  of 
punishment,  no  hope  of  reward,  had  induced  any  one  accom- 
plice, after  more  than  twelve  months,  either  to  abandon  the 
conspiracy,  or  to  make  a  discovery  of  it.  But  the  holy  fury 
by  which  they  were  actuated,  though  it  had  extinguished  in 
their  breasts  every  generous  sentiment  and  every  selfish  mo- 
tive, yet  left  them  susceptible  to  those  bigoted  partialities  by 
which  it  was  inspired,  and  which  fortunately  saved  the  nation. 
A  short  time  before  the  meeting  of  parliament,  Lord  Monteagle, 


THE  GUNPOWDER  PLOT.  187 

a  Catholic  nobleman,  whose  father,  Lord  Morley,  had  been  a 
great  sufferer  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  on  account  of  his 
attachment  to  popery,  received  the  following  letter : 

"  My  lord — Out  of  the  love  I  bear  to  some  of  your  friends, 
I  have  a  care  of  your  preservation  :  therefore,  I  would  advise 
you,  as  you  tender  your  life,  to  devise  some  excuse  to  shift  off 
your  attendance  at  this  parliament ;  for  God  and  man  have 
resolved  to  punish  the  wickedness  of  this  time.  And  think 
not  slightly  of  this  advertisement ;  but  retire  yourself  into  your 
country,  where  you  may  expect  the  event  in  safety :  for,  though 
there  be  no  appearance  of  any  stir,  yet  I  say  they  will  receive 
a  terrible  blow  this  parliament,  and  yet  they  shall  not  see  who 
hurts  them.  This  counsel  is  not  to  be  contemned ;  because  it 
may  do  you  good,  and  can  do  you  no  harm — for  the  danger  is 
past  as  soon  as  you  have  burned  the  letter ;  and  I  hope  God 
will  give  you  the  grace  to  make  good  use  of  it,  to  whose  holy 
protection  I  commend  you." 

Though  Monteagle  was  inclined  to  think  this  a  foolish  at- 
tempt to  expose  him  to  ridicule,  by  frightening  him  from  at- 
tending his  duty  in  parliament,  he  judged  it  safest  to  carry  the 
letter  to  Lord  Salisbury,  secretary  of  state.  Salisbury  either 
did  or  pretended  to  think  it  a  light  matter  ;  so  that  all  farther 
inquiry  was  dropped  till  the  king,  who  had  been  for  some  time 
at  Royston,  returned  to  town.  To  the  timid  sagacity  of  James, 
the  matter  appeared  in  a  more  important  point  of  view.  From 
the  serious  and  earnest  style  of  the  letter,  he  conjectured  that 
it  intimated  some  dark  and  dangerous  design  against  the  state ; 
and  many  particular  expressions  in  it,  such  as  great,  sudden, 
and  terrible  blow,  yet  the  authors  concealed,  seemed  to  denote 
some  contrivance  by  gunpowder.  It  was,  therefore,  thought 
proper  to  inspect  all  the  vaults  below  the  two  houses  of  parlia- 
ment. This  inspection,  however,  was  purposely  delayed  till  the 
day  before  the  meeting  of  the  great  council  of  the  nation  ;  when, 
on  searching  the  vaults  beneath  the  House  of  Lords,  the  gun- 
powder was  discovered,  though  concealed  under  great  piles  of 
wood  and  fagots  ;  and  Guido  Fawkes,  an  officer  in  the  Spanish 
service,  who  stood  in  a  dark  corner,  and  passed  himself  for 
Percy's  servant,  was  seized  and  carried  to  the  Tower. 

This  man  had  been  sent  for  from  Flanders,  on  account  of  his 
determined  courage  and  known  zeal  in  the  Catholic  cause.     He 


188 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


was  accordingly  intrusted  with  the  most  trying  part  in  the  en- 
terprise. The  matches,  and  every  thing  proper  for  setting  fire 
to  the  train,  were  found  in  his  pocket.  He  at  first  behaved 
with  great  insolence  and  obstinacy;  not  only  refusing  to  dis- 
cover his  accomplices,  but  expressing  the  utmost  regret  that  he 
had  lost  the  precious  opportunity  of  at  least  sweetening  his 
death  by  taking  vengeance  on  his  and  God's  enemies.  But, 
after  some  days'  confinement  and  solitude,  his  courage  failed 
him  on  being  shown  the  rack,  and  he  made  a  full  discovery  of 
all  the  conspirators.  Several  of  them  were  men  of  ancient 
family,  independent  fortune,  and  unspotted  character — insti- 
gated alone  to  so  great  a  crime  by  a  fanatical  zeal,  which  led 
them  to  believe  that  they  were  serving  their  Maker,  while  they 
were  contriving  the  ruin  of  their  country  and  the  destruction 
of  their  species. 

Such  of  the  conspirators  as  were  in  London,  on  hearing  that 
Fawkes  was  arrested,  hurried  down  to  Warwickshire ;  where 
Sir  Everard  Digby,  one  of  their  associates,  was  already  in 
arms,  in  order  to  seize  the  princess  Elizabeth,  who  was  then  at 
Lord  Harrington's  in  that  county.  They  failed  in  their  at- 
tempt to  get  hold  of  the  princess ;  the  county  rose  upon  them, 
and  they  were  all  taken  and  executed,  except  three,  who  fell  a 
sacrifice  to  their  desperate  valour ;  namely,  Wright,  a  daring 
fanatic ;  Catesby,  the  original  conspirator ;  and  Percy,  his  first 
and  most  active  associate. 


DISCOVERY  AND  EXPLORATION  OF  NORTH  AMERICA.       189 


DISCOVERY  AND  EXPLORATION  OF  NORTH 
AMERICA. 


HE  fame  which  Columbus  had  acquired  by 
his  first  discoveries  on  this  western  conti- 
nent spread  through  Europe,  and  inspired 
many  with  the  spirit  of  enterprise.  As 
early  as  1496,  only  four  years  after  the  first 
discovery  of  America,  John  Cabot,  a  Vene- 
tian, obtained  a  commission  from  Henry 
VII.  to  discover  unknown  lands,  and  annex  them  to  the  crown. 
In  the  spring  he  sailed  from  England  with  two  ships,  carrying 
with  him  his  three  sons.  In  this  voyage,  which  was  intended 
for  China,  he  fell  in  with  the  north  side  of  Terra  Labrador,  and 
coasted  as  far  as  67°  north  latitude.  Next  year  he  made  a 
second  voyage  with  his  son  Sebastian,  who  afterwards  proceeded 
in  the  discoveries  which  his  father  had  begun.     On  the  24th  of 


190 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


PONCE    DE    LEON. 


June  he  discovered  Bonavista,  on  the  north-east  side  of  New- 
foundland ;  traversed  the  coast  from  Davis's  Straits  to  Cape 
Florida ;  and  in  1502,  brought  three  natives  of  Newfoundland 
to  Henry  VII. 

In  1513,  Ponce  de  Leon  sailed  from  Porto  Rico  northerly, 
and  discovered  the  continent  in  30°  8'  north  latitude.  He 
landed  in  April,  a  season  when  the  country  around  was  covered 
with  verdure,  and  in  full  bloom.  This  circumstance  induced  him 
to  call  the  country  Florida,  which,  for  many  years,  was  the 
common  name  for  both  North  and  South  America. 

In  1516,  Sebastian  Cabot  and  Sir  Thomas  Pert  explored  the 
coast  as  far  as  Brazil  in  South  America.  This  vast  extent  of 
country,  the  coast  whereof  was  thus  explored,  remained  un- 
claimed and  unsettled  by  any  European  power,  (except  by  the 
Spaniards  in  South  America,)  for  almost  a  century  from  the  time 
of  its  discovery. 

It  was  not  till  1524  that  France  attempted  discoveries  on  the 
American  coast.  Stimulated  by  his  enterprising  neighbours, 
Francis  I.  sent  John  Verrazano,  a  Florentine,  to  America,  to 
make  discoveries ;  who  traversed  the  coast  from  28°  to  50° 
north  latitude,  but  in  a  second  voyage,  some  time  after,  was  lost. 


lRTIE*    TAEINO    P06SE£ 


UOH    OF    CANADA- 


DISCOVERY  AND  EXPLORATION  OF  NORTH  AMERICA.       193 


VEBEAZANO. 


In  1525,  Stephen  Gomez,  the  first  Spaniard  who  came  upon  the 
American  coast  for  discovery,  sailed  from  Groyn  in  Spain  to 
Cuba  and  Florida,  thence  northward  to  Cape  Razo,  in  46°  north 
latitude,  in  search  of  a  north-west  passage  to  the  East  Indies. 

In  the  spring  of  1534,  by  the  direction  of  Francis  L,  a  fleet  was 
fitted  out  at  St.  Malo's  in  France,  with  design  to  make  disco- 
veries. The  command  of  this  fleet  was  given  to  James  Cartier. 
He  arrived  at  Newfoundland  in  May  of  this  year.  Thence  he 
sailed  northerly;  and,  on  the  day  of  the  festival  of  St.  Law- 
rence, he  found  himself,  in  about  48°  30'  north  latitude,  in  the 
midst  of  a  broad  gulf,  which  he  named  St.  Lawrence.  He  gave 
the  same  name  to  the  river  which  empties  into  it.  In  this 
voyage,  he  sailed  as  far  as  51°  north  latitude,  expecting  in  vain 
to  find  a  passage  to  China.  Next  year  he  sailed  up  the  river 
St.  Lawrence  three  hundred  leagues  to  the  great  and  swift  fall. 
He  called  the  country  New  France  ;  built  a  fort,  in  which  he  spent 
the  winter,  and  returned  in  the  following  spring  to  France. 

In  1522,  Francis  La  Roche  was  sent  to  Canada,  by  the 
French  king,  with  three  ships  and  two  hundred  men,  women,  and 
children.  They  wintered  here  in  a  fort  which  they  had  built,  and 
returned  in  the  spring.  About  the  year  1550,  a  large  number 
of  adventurers  sailed  for  Canada,  but  were  never  after  heard  of. 
In  1578,  the  king  of  France  commissioned  the  marquis  de  la 
25  R 


194 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


Roche  to  conquer  Canada,  and  other  countries  not  possessed 
by  any  Christian  prince.  We  do  not  learn,  however,  that  La 
Roche  ever  attempted  to  execute  his  commission,  or  that  any 
further  attempts  were  made  to  settle  Canada  during  this  century. 
On  the  12th  of  May,  1539,  Ferdinand  de  Soto,  with  nine 
hundred  men,  besides  seamen,  sailed  from  Cuba,  having  for  his 
object  the  conquest  of  Florida.  On  the  30th  of  May-  he  ar- 
rived at  Spirito  Santo,  from  whence  he  travelled  northward  four 
hundred  and  fifty  leagues  from  the  sea.  Here  he  discovered  a 
river  of  a  quarter  a  mile  wide  and  nineteen  fathoms  deep,  on  the 
bank  of  which  he  died  and  was  buried,  May,  1542,  aged  forty- 
two  years.  Alverdo,  his  successor,  built  seven  brigantines,  and 
the  year  following  embarked  upon  the  river.  In  seventeen  days 
he  proceeded  down  the  river  four  hundred  leagues,  where  he 
judged  it  to  be  fifteen  leagues  wide.  From  the  largeness  of  the 
river  at  that  place  of  his  embarkation,  he  concluded  its  source 
must  have  been  at  least  four  hundred  leagues  above,  so  that  the 
whole  length  of  the  river  in  his  opinion  must  have  been  more  than 
eight  hundred  leagues.  As  he  passed  down  the  river,  he  found 
it  opened  by  two  mouths  into  the  gulf  of  Mexico.  These  circum- 
stances lead  us  to  conclude,  that  this  river,  so  early  discovered, 
was  the  one  which  we  now  call  the  Mississippi. 


~\ 


SOTO     DISCOVERING     THE     MISSISSIPPI. 


DISCOVERY  AND  EXPLORATION  OF  NORTH  AMERICA.       197 

In  1562,  Admiral  Coligny,  of  France,  sent  out  a  fleet  under 
the  command  of  John  Ribault.  He  arrived  at  Cape  Francis  on 
the  coast  of  Florida,  near  which,  on  the  first  of  May,  he  disco- 
vered and  entered  a  river  which  he  called  May  river.  It  is  pro- 
bable, this  river  is  the  same  which  we  now  call  St.  Mary's.  As  he 
coasted  northward,  he  discovered  eight  other  rivers,  one  of  which 
he  called  Port  Royal  and  sailed  up  it  several  leagues.  On  one 
of  the  rivers  he  built  a  fort,  and  called  it  Charles,  in  which  he 
left  a  colony,  under  the  direction  of  Captain  Albert.  The  severity 
of  Albert's  measures  excited  a  mutiny,  in  which,  to  the  ruin  of 
the  colony,  he  was  slain. 

Two  years  after,  Coligny  sent  Rene  Laudonnier  with  three 
ships  to  Florida.  In  June  he  arrived  at  the  river  May,  on 
which  he  built  a  fort,  and,  in  honour  to  his  king,  Charles  IX., 
he  called  it  Carolina.  In  August,  Captain  Ribault  arrived  at 
Florida  the  second  time,  with  a  fleet  of  seven  vessels  to  recruit 
the  colony,  which,  two  years  before,  he  had  left  under  the  di- 
rection of  the  unfortunate  Captain  Albert.  In  September,  Pe- 
dro Melendes,  with  six  Spanish  ships,  pursued  Ribault  up  the 
river  on  which  he  had  settled,  and,  overpowering  him  in  num- 
bers, cruelly  massacred  him  and  his  whole  company.  Melendes, 
having  in  his  way  taken  possession  of  the  country,  built  three 
forts,  and  left  them  garrisoned  with  twelve  hundred  soldiers. 
Laudonnier  and  his  colony  on  May  river,  receiving  information 
of  the  fate  of  Ribault,  took  the  alarm  and  escaped  to  France. 

In  1567,  a  fleet  of  three  ships  was  sent  from  France  to  Flo- 
rida, under  the  command  of  Dominique  de  Gourges.  The  object 
was  to  dispossess  the  Spaniards  of  that  part  of  Florida  which 
they  had  cruelly  and  unjustifiably  seized  three  years  before. 
He  arrived  on  the  coast  of  Florida,  April,  1568,  and  soon  after 
made  a  successful  attack  upon  the  forts.  The  recent  cruelty 
of  Melendes  and  his  company  excited  revenge  and  retaliation. 
He  took  the  forts ;  put  most  of  the  Spaniards  to  the  sword, 
and  having  burned  and  demolished  all  their  fortresses,  returned 
to  France. 

In  1576,  Captain  Frobisher  was  sent  to  find  out  a  north-west 
passage  to  the  East  Indies.  The  first  landing  which  he  made 
on  the  coast  was  upon  a  cape,  which  he  called  Queen  Elizabeth's 
Foreland.  In  coasting  northerly  he  discovered  the  straits  which 
bear  his  name.     He  prosecuted  his  search  for  a  passage  into  the 

K    2 


198 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  niSTORY. 
.       <  fa 


RALEIGH. 


western  ocean,  till  he  was  prevented  by  the  ice,  and  then  re- 
turned to  England. 

In  1579,  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  obtained  a  patent  from  Queen 
Elizabeth  for  lands  not  yet  possessed  by  any  Christian  prince, 
provided  he  would  take  possession  within  six  years.  With  this 
encouragement  he  sailed  for  America,  and  on  the  1st  of  August 
1583,  anchored  in  Conception  Bay.  Afterwards  he  discovered 
and  took  possession  of  St.  John's  Harbour,  and  the  country 
south ;  but  in  pursuing  his  discoveries  he  was  unfortunately 
lost,  and  the  intended  settlement  was  prevented. 

In  1584,  two  patents  were  granted  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  one 
to  Adrian  Gilbert,  (Feb.  6,)  the  other  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  for 
lands  not  possessed  by  any  Christian  prince.  By  the  direction 
of  Sir  Walter,  two  ships  were  fitted  and  sent  out,  under  the 
command  of  Philip  Amidas  and  Arthur  Barlow.  In  July  they 
arrived  on  the  coast,  and  anchored  in  a  harbour  seven  leagues 
west  of  the  Roanoke.  On  the  13th  of  July,  they  took  possession 
of  the  country,  and,  in  honour  of  their  virgin  Queen  Elizabeth, 
they  called  it  Virginia,  which  for  some  time  after  became  the  com- 
mon name  for  all  North  America. 


DISCOVERY  AND  EXPLORATION  OF  NORTH  AMERICA.       199 


THE    SETTLEMENT    AT     ROANOKE. 


In  1585,  Sir  "milter  Raleigh  sent  Sir  Richard  Grenville  to 
America  with  seven  ships.  He  arrived  at  Wococon  harbour  in 
June.  Having  stationed  a  colony  of  more  than  a  hundred  people 
at  Roanoke,  under  the  direction  of  Captain  Ralph  Lane,  he 
coasted  north-east  as  far  as  Chesapeake  Bay.  The  colony  under 
Captain  Lane  endured  extreme  hardships,  and  must  have  per- 
ished, had  not  Sir  Francis  Drake  fortunately  returned  to  Vir- 
ginia and  carried  them  to  England,  after  having  made  several 
conquests  for  the  queen  in  the  West  Indies  and  other  places. 
A  fortnight  after,  Sir  Richard  Grenville  arrived  with  new  re- 
cruits, and  left  fifty  men  at  the  same   place. 

In  1587,  Sir  "Walter  sent  another  company  to  Virginia,  un- 
der Governor  White,  with  a  charter,  and  twelve  assistants.  In 
July  he  arrived  at  Roanoke.  Not  one  of  the  second  company 
remained.  He  determined,  however,  to  risk  a  third  colony.  Ac- 
cordingly he  left  a  hundred  and  fifteen  people  at  the  old  settle- 
ment, and  returned  to  England.  On  the  13th  of  August,  1587, 
Manteo  was  baptized  in  Virginia.  He  was  the  first  native  In- 
dian who  received  that  ordinance  in  that  part  of  America.  On 
the  18th,  Mrs.  Dare  was  delivered  of  a  daughter,  whom  she 


200  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

called  Virginia.  She  was  the  first  English  child  that  was  born 
in  North  America.  In  1590,  Governor  White  came  over  to  Vir- 
ginia with  supplies  and  recruits  for  his  colony ;  but,  to  his  great 
grief,  not  a  man  was  to  be  found.  They  had  all  miserably  fam- 
ished with  hunger,  or  had  been  massacred  by  the  Indians. 

In  1602,  Bartholomew  Gofnold,  with  thirty-two  persons,  made 
a  voyage  to  North  Virginia,  and  discovered  and  gave  names  to 
Cape  Cod,  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  Elizabeth  Islands,  and  to 
Dover  Cliff.  Elizabeth  Island  was  the  place  which  they  fixed 
for  their  settlement.  But  the  courage  of  those  who  should  have 
remained  failing,  they  all  returned  to  England.  All  the  at- 
tempts to  settle  this  continent  which  were  made  by  the  Dutch, 
French,  and  English,  from  its  discovery  to  the  present  time,  a 
period  of  a  hundred  years,  proved  ineffectual.  The  Spaniards 
only,  of  all  the  European  nations,  had  been  successful.  There 
is  no  account  of  there  having  been  one  European  family,  at 
this  time,  in  all  the  vast  extent  of  coast  from  Florida  to  Green- 
land. 

In  1603,  Martin  Pring  and  William  Brown  were  sent  by  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  with  two  small  vessels,  to  make  discoveries 
in  North  Virginia.  They  came  upon  the  coast,  which  was 
broken  with  a  multitude  of  islands,  in  43°  30'  north  latitude. 
They  coasted  southward  to  Cape  Cod  Bay ;  thence  round  the 
cape  into  a  commodious  harbour  in  latitude  41°  25',  where  they 
went  ashore  and  tarried  seven  weeks,  during  which  time  they 
loaded  one  of  their  vessels  with  sassafras,  and  returned  to  Eng- 
land. 

Bartholomew  Gilbert,  in  a  voyage  to  South  Virginia,  in  search 
of  the  third  colony  which  had  been  left  there  by  Governor  White 
in  1587,  having  touched  at  several  of  the  West  India  Islands, 
landed  near  Chesapeake  Bay,  where,  in  a  skirmish  with  the  In- 
dians, he  and  four  of  his  men  were  unfortunately  slain.  The 
rest,  without  any  farther  search  for  the  colony,  returned  to  Eng- 
land. 

France,  being  at  this  time  in  a  state  of  tranquillity,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  edict  of  Nantz  in  favour  of  the  Protestants 
passed  by  Henry  IV.  in  1598,  and  of  the  peace  with  Philip  king 
of  Spain  and  Portugal,  was  induced  to  pursue  her  discoveries  in 
America.  Accordingly  the  king  signed  a  patent  in  favour  of 
De  Mons,  in  1603,  of  all  the  country  from  the  40th  to  the  46th 


DISCOVERY  AND  EXPLORATION  OF  NORTH  AMERICA.        201 

degrees  of  north  latitude,  under  the  name  of  Acadia.  Next 
year  De  Mons  ranged  the  coast  from  St.  Lawrence  to  Cape  Sa- 
ble, and  so  round  Cape  Cod. 

In  May,  1605,  George's  Island  and  Pentecost  harbour  were 
discovered  by  Captain  George  Weymouth.  In  May  he  entered 
a  large  river  in  latitude  43°  20',  (variation  11°  15'  west,)  which 
Mr.  Prince,  in  his  chronology,  supposes  must  have  been  Saga- 
dahok ;  but  from  the  latitude  it  was  more  probably  the  Pisca- 
taqua.  Captain  Weymouth  carried  with  him  to  England  five 
of  the  natives. 


26 


202  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA. 

N  the  year  1608,  Captain  Newport  sailed 
from  England  with  three  ships  and  one 
hundred  and  five  men,  who  were  destined 
to  remain  in  the  country  which  they  were 
about  to  visit.  Among  these  were  some 
gentlemen  of  distinguished  families,  par- 
ticularly Mr.  Percy,  brother  to  the  earl  of 
Northumberland,  and  several  officers  of  reputation,  who  had 
carried  arms  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  Though  they  fol- 
lowed the  old  course,  and  sailed  towards  the  West  Indies,  yet 
when  they  had  reached  the  American  shore,  they  were  driven 
to  the  north  of  Roanoke  by  a  storm,  and  accidentally  discovered 
Cape  Henry.  This  is  the  southern  boundary  of  Chesapeake 
Bay.  They  stretched  at  once  into  that  noble  harbour,  which 
receives  the  waters  of  the  Powhatan,  the  Potomac,  the  Susque- 
hanna, and  all  the  rivers  which  give  fertility  to  this  part  of 
America,  and  adapt  it  so  wonderfully  to  the  purposes  of  inland 
navigation.  Newport  sailed  up  the  Powhatan,  to  which  he  gave 
the  name  of  James  River,  in  honour  of  the  sovereign  under  whose 
authority  he  acted ;  and  here  he  chose  a  place  of  residence  for 
the  adventurers  who  were  to  settle  in  the  country.  They  raised 
a  few  huts  to  protect  them  from  the  inclemency  of  the  weather ; 
and  the  council  who  were  nominated  by  the  king,  and  were  to 
reside  in  America,  opened  their  commissions  and  entered  upon 
their  office.  The  infant  settlement  was  called  Jamestown ;  an 
appellation  which  it  still  retains  ;  and,  though  it  never  rose  to 
great  wealth  or  distinction,  it  was  the  first  of  the  English  es- 
tablishments in  the  New  World,  and  has  all  the  honour  among 
,the  American  States  that  antiquity  can  confer. 

The  Indians  among  whom  the  European  adventurers  had 
settled  were  divided  into  small  and  independent  tribes,  and  sepa- 
rated from  one  another  by  hereditary  and  unabating  resentment. 


CAPTAIN     JOHN     SMITH. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  205 

They  were  able,  however,  to  disturb  the  colony  by  their  petty 
hostilities ;  though  they  could  not,  at  this  time,  muster  a  force 
sufficient  to  destroy  it.  But  this  was  not  the  only  calamity 
which  the  Europeans  were  doomed  to  suffer.  The  stock  of  pro- 
visions which  they  had  brought  with  them  from  England  was 
nearly  exhausted ;  and  what  remained  was  of  a  quality  so  bad, 
that  it  was  unfit  to  be  eaten.  This  scanty  allowance  to  which 
they  were  reduced,  as  well  as  the  influence  of  a  climate  to  which 
they  were  not  yet  habituated,  gave  rise  to  diseases,  and  quick- 
ened their  virulence ;  so  that  the  number  of  the  colonists  gradu- 
ally diminished.  In  this  exigency,  they  were  relieved  by  the 
talents  and  activity  of  Captain  Smith.  Immediately  after  the 
arrival  of  the  settlers,  and  in  consequence  of  the  disagreements 
which  had  taken  place  during  the  voyage,  he  had  been  expelled 
from  the  council,  though  chosen  by  the  king  as  one  of  its  mem- 
bers ;  but  such  were  his  abilities  and  enterprising  temper,  that 
he  was  now  unanimously  called  to  his  seat,  and  invited  to  take 
a  chief  part  in  the  administration.  He  was  not  unworthy  of 
the  charge,  or  unequal  to  the  duties  which  his  situation  required. 
He  fortified  Jamestown,  so  as  to  protect  the  colonists  from  the 
injuries  of  the  savages.  He  marched  in  quest  of  those  tribes 
who  had  given  most  disturbance  to  the  Europeans ;  and  partly 
by  address  and  good  treatment,  he  put  an  end  to  their  hostilities, 
and  procured  from  them  a  supply  of  provisions,  of  which  the 
colony  was  so  much  in  need.  By  the  exertions  of  Smith,  con- 
tentment was  speedily  restored ;  and  this  he  considered  as  a 
sufficient  recompense  for  all  his  toils  and  dangers.  But,  unfor- 
tunately, in  one  of  his  excursions,  he  was  surprised  by  a  nu- 
merous party  of  Indians,  and  compelled  to  retreat;  and  the 
savages  pressing  hard  upon  him,  he  sunk  to  the  neck  in  a 
morass,  and  was*  taken  prisoner.  He  was  carried  to  Powhatan, 
the  most  considerable  sachem  or  chief  of  Virginia,  and  would 
have  suffered  a  cruel  death,  if  Pocahontas,  the  daughter  of 
Powhatan,  animated  by  that  concern  for  the  English  which  the 
adventurers  from  the  west  never  failed  to  experience,  had  not 
rushed  between  him  and  the  executioner,  and  begged  her  father 
to  spare  his  life.  Her  request  was  granted;  and  she  afterwards 
procured  him  his  liberty ;  and  from  time  to  time  sent  provisions 
to  the  colony. 

When  Smith  returned  to  Jamestown,  he  found  no  more  than 

s 


206 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


CAPTAIN    SMITH    EXPLORING    CHESAPEAKE    BAT. 


thirty-eight  persons  within  the  Avails  which  he  had  lately  raised. 
The  spirits  of  the  colony  were  completely  broken.  Every  indi- 
vidual was  filled  with  despondency,  and  anxious  to  leave  a  country 
which  was  so  inhospitable.  He  prevailed  upon  them,  however, 
to  remain  for  some  time  ;  and  provisions  arriving  from  England, 
abundance  and  satisfaction  were  happily  restored.  Smith  had 
formed  a  determination  of  visiting  and  examining  the  country 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  place  where  the  English  had  settled ; 
and,  in  order  to  prosecute  his  design,  he  embarked  with  a  hand- 
ful of  adventurers  (a.  d.  1609)  in  an  open  boat,  ill  adapted  to 
the  purposes  for  which  it  was  intended.  He  advanced  towards 
the  north,  as  far  as  the  river  Susquehanna,  and  visited  the 
country  both  on  the  east  and  the  west ;  and  trading  with  some 
of  the  natives,  and  fighting  with  others,  he  taught  them  to  re- 
spect the  English  for  their  superiority  in  knowledge  and  in  arts, 
and  to  dread  the  operation  of  the  weapons  which  they  used.  He 
afterwards  made  a  second  excursion  ;  and  at  length  drew  out  a 
map  of  the  creeks  and  inlets  which  he  had  entered,  as  well  as 
the  adjacent  country,  with  such  accuracy  that  his  delineation 
has  served  as  a  basis  and  a  model  for  all  those  who  have  since 
attempted  to  exhibit  the  geography  of  the  United  States. 

In  the  same  year,  (1609,)  a  remarkable  change  took  place  in 
the  constitution  of  the  colony.  A  new  charter  was  issued,  of  a 
more  enlarged  and  liberal  nature  than  the  former.  The  boun- 
daries of  the  settlement  were  extended ;  the  council  resident  in 
America  was  abolished,  and  the  administration  of  affairs  vested 
in  a  council,  resident  in  London.     A  numerous  body  of  respect- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  207 

able  merchants  and  others  were  joined  to  the  former  adventu- 
rers, and  they  were  all  incorporated  under  the  name  of  "  The 
Treasurer  and  Company  of  Adventurers  of  the  city  of  London, 
for  the  first  colony  in  Virginia."  The  proprietors  of  this  com- 
pany were  allowed  to  chose  the  persons  of  whom  the  council  was 
to  be  composed ;  and  powers  were  granted  them  to  elect  a  gover- 
nor, who  was  to  manage  their  affairs  in  the  colony,  and  to  exe- 
cute the  orders  which  should  be  issued  from  England.  They 
were  farther  authorized  to  enact  such  laws,  and  introduce  such 
regulations,  as  they  should  judge  most  advantageous  for  the 
settlers  in  America.  These  ample  privileges  were  conferred  in 
an  age  when  privileges  of  a  similar  nature  were  not  often  con- 
ferred ;  but  it  is  probable,  that  James,  with  all  his  sagacity,  did 
not  perceive  the  consequences  in  which  they  were  likely  to  ter- 
minate. 

As  soon  as  the  company  had  got  the  management  of  their 
affairs  into  their  own  hands,  the  proprietors  daily  increased  both 
in  numbers  and  respectability. 


208 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


HE  efforts  of  the  company  at  Ply- 
mouth were  neither  so  vig- 
orous, nor  at  first  so  suc- 
cessful, as  those  of  the 
company  in  London. 

For  a  while  their  at- 
tempts were  limited  to  voy- 
ages made  for  the  purpose 
of  taking  fish,  or,  at  most, 
of  trading  with  the  na- 
tives, and  procuring  furs. 
In  one  of  these  attempts,  Captain  Smith,  of  whom  we  have 
spoken  in  the  history  of  Virginia,  explored  with  accuracy 
(a.  d.  1614)  that  part  of  the  American  coast  which  stretches 
from  Penobscot  to  Cape  Cod ;  and  having  delineated  a  map  of- 
the  country,  he  presented  it  to  Charles,  prince  of  Wales,  who 
gave  to  the  region  that  Smith  had  visited  the  name  of  New 
England,  which  it  still  retains. 

But  what  the  exertions  of  the  company  were  unable  to  ac- 
complish, was  effected  by  a  principle  which  has,  at  all  times,  had 
a  chief  share  in  the  revolutions  that  take  place  in  human  affairs. 
When  the  light  of  the  Reformation  had  dawned  upon  Europe, 
the  extravagant  doctrines  and  absurd  practices  of  the  Romish 
church  filled  the  minds  of  those  who  had  ventured  to  think  freely 
on  religious  topics,  with  horror  and  irreconcilable  aversion. 
The  spirit  which  prevailed  at  that  time  was  by  no  means  satis- 
fied either  with  the  partial  changes  which  took  place  in  the 
reigns  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Elizabeth,  or  the  imperious  manner 
in  which  these  sovereigns  dictated  a  creed  to  their  people ;  and 
the  less  so,  as  the  opinions  of  the  royal  theologians  themselves, 
especially  those  of  the  former,  had  undergone  considerable  al- 
terations.    Elizabeth,  determined  that  all  her  subjects  should 


t 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  211 

conform  to  the  belief  which  she  had  chosen  for  them,  established 
a  High  Commission  for  ecclesiastical  affairs ;  with  powers  not 
inferior,  or  less  hostile  to  the  rights  of  conscience,  than  those  of 
the  Inquisition  in  Spain.  Some  attempts  were  made  in  the 
House  of  Commons  to  check  these  arbitrary  and  odious  pro- 
ceedings :  but  Elizabeth  interfered  with  her  prerogative,  and  the 
guardians  of  the  people  were  silent.  They  even  consented  to 
an  act,  by  which  those  who  should  be  absent  from  church  for  a 
month  were  subjected  to  a  fine  and  imprisonment,  and,  if  they 
persisted  in  their  obstinacy,  to  death  without  benefit  of  clergy. 
In  consequence  of  this  iniquitous  statute,  and  the  distresses  in 
which  the  Puritans  were  involved,  a  body  of  them,  called 
Brownists  from  the  name  of  their  founder,  left  England,  and 
settled  at  Leyden,  in  Holland,  under  the  care  of  Mr.  John  Ro- 
binson^  their  pastor.  But  this  situation  at  length  proving  dis- 
agreeable to  them,  and  their  children  intermarrying  with  the 
Dutch,  they  were  apprehensive  lest  their  church,  which  they  re- 
garded as  a  model  of  untarnished  purity,  should  gradually  decay  ; 
and  having  obtained  a  promise  from  James  I.  that  they  should 
not  be  molested  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion,  they  fled  to 
America,  and  founded  the  colony  of  New  Plymouth.  They  con- 
tinued for  some  time  to  adhere  to  their  religious  opinions,  but 
never  became  so  numerous  as  to  attract,  in  any  great  degree,  the 
attention  of  the  mother  country.  They  were  afterwards  united 
to  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  the  origin  and  progress  of 
which  we  shall  now  relate. 

From  the  tranquillity  which  the  Brownists  had  enjoyed  at  New 
Plymouth,  and  the  sufferings  to  which  those  who  held  the  same 
opinions  were  exposed  in  England,  an  association  was  formed  by 
Mr.  White,  a  clergyman  at  Dorchester,  in  order  to  lead  a  new 
colony  to  that  part  of  America,  where  their  brethren  were  set- 
tled. They  applied  to  the  Grand  Council  of  Plymouth,  of  which 
the  duke  of  Lennox  and  the  marquis  of  Buckingham  were  mem- 
bers, (for  the  original  company  had  been  dissolved  by  the  au- 
thority of  the  king,)  and  purchased  from  them  all  that  part  of 
New  England  which  lies  three  miles  to  the  south  of  Charles 
river,  and  three  miles  to  the  north  of  Merrimac  river,  and  ex- 
tends from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  South  Sea.  They  obtained 
a  charter  from  Charles  I.,  by  which  the  same  ample  privileges 
were  conferred  upon  them  which  James  had  conferred  upon  the 


212  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

two  companies  of  Virginia;  and  they  obtained  it  with  a  facility 
which  appears  to  us  altogether  unaccountable,  when  we  think  of 
the  principles  and  views  of  those  to  whom  it  was  granted.  They 
embarked,  to  the  number  of  three  hundred,  in  five  ships,  (a.  d. 
1629,)  and  landed  at  New  England.  They  found  there  the  re- 
mains of  a  small  body  of  Puritans,  who  had  left  their  country 
the  year  before,  under  Endicott,  a  frantic  enthusiast ;  and 
uniting  with  these,  they  settled  at  a  place  to  which  Endicott  had 
given  the  name  of  Salem.  This  was  the  first  permanent  town 
in  Massachusetts. 

All  these  emigrants  were  Puritans  of  the  strictest  sort,  and 
their  notions  of  eclesiastical  affairs  were  reduced  to  the  lowest 
standard  of  Calvinistic  simplicity.  But  with  an  inconsistency 
of  which  there  are  many  examples,  and  with  which  no  particular 
sect  can  be  charged  to  the  exclusion  of  others,  the  very  men 
who  had  just  escaped  from  the  intolerance  of  persecution  in 
England,  shortly  after  their  arrival,  banished  two  of  their  num- 
ber from  the  settlement,  on  account  of  a  difference  in  religious 
opinion. 

It  was  by  no  means  agreeable  to  the  planters  in  America 
that  they  should  be  governed  by  the  company  in  England,  the 
members  of  which  were  at  a  distance,  and  unacquainted  with 
their  circumstances ;  and  not  a  few  of  the  proprietors  them- 
selves were  disheartened  by  the  oppression  of  Laud,  and  eager 
to  be  disengaged  from  an  adventure  which  was  yet  unpromising. 
It  was  therefore  determined,  by  general  consent,  that  "  the  char- 
ter should  be  transferred,  and  the  government  of  the  corporation 
settled  in  Massachusetts  Bay."  This  is  perhaps  the  most  re- 
markable occurrence  in  the  history  of  English  colonization. 
The  right  of  the  company  to  make  such  a  transference  is  very 
questionable.  The  indifference  of  the  king  in  allowing  it  to 
take  place  is  no  less  astonishing  :  but  he  was  engaged  at  this 
time  in  disputes  with  his  parliament,  and  perhaps  was  not  dis- 
pleased that  a  body  of  his  subjects,  who  were  known  for  their 
dislike  to  his  government,  were  removed  to  a  country  where  their 
turbulent  spirit  could  not  so  easily  prove  dangerous  to  his  in- 
terests. Whatever  was  the  reason  of  Charles's  connivance,  the 
adventurers  proceeded  without  delay  to  execute  their  plans.  In 
a  general  court,  Winthrop  was  chosen  governor,  and  eighteen 
persons  were  nominated  his  assistants ;  and  in  these,  together 


W  I  N  T  H  K  0  1'. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


215 


SETTLEMENT    OF    BOSTON. 


with  a  body  of  freemen  who  should  settle  in  New  England,  all 
the  rights  of  the  company  were  vested.  In  consequence  of  this 
alteration,  seventeen  vessels  and  three  hundred  planters  sailed 
for  America.  As  soon  as  they  arrived  at  New  England,  they 
explored  the  country  in  quest  of  a  better  station  than  that  of 
Endicott  at  Salem,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  many  towns, 
especially  those  of  Charlestown  and  Boston. 

As  the  same  causes  which  at  first  led  to  emigration  continued 
to  operate,  the  number  of  the  settlers  increased,  by  arrivals  from 
Europe  almost  every  year.  Among  those  who  left  their  country 
about  this  time  were  two  persons,  afterwards  distinguished  on 
a  more  conspicuous  theatre — Peters,  the  chaplain  and  assistant 
of  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  Mr.  Vane,  son  to  Sir  Henry  Vane,  a 
man  of  note,  a  privy-councillor,  and  of  great  influence  with  the 
king.  Mr.  Vane  was  received  by  the  planters  with  the  fondest 
admiration.  His  grave  and  mortified  appearance,  and  his  repu- 
tation for  wisdom  and  piety,  together  with  the  attention  which 
he  paid  to  the  leading  members  of  the  church,  all  conspired  to 
render  him  the  favourite  of  the  people  ;  and  he  was  appointed 
to  the  office  of  governor  with  universal  approbation.  But  the 
part  which  he  took  in  the  religious  disputes  which  then  agitated 


216  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

the  colony,  detaching  many  of  his  adherents  from  his  interest, 
he  quitted  America  in  disgust,  unregretted  even  by  those  who 
had  so  lately  admired  him. 

Besides  the  meetings  for  the  worship  of  God  on  Sunday,  and 
the  lecture  every  Thursday,  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  assembled 
on  the  other  days  of  the  week  for  the  purposes  of  religious  con- 
ference and  theological  discussion.  With  a  propriety  which  has 
not  always  distinguished  the  enthusiastic  and  the  visionary,  the 
females  were  strictly  excluded  from  these  assemblies.  But  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  a  woman  of  some  talents,  and  not  deficient  in  elo- 
quence, instituted  a  meeting  of  the  sisters  also ;  and  her  lec- 
tures were  at  first  attended  by  many  respectable  persons  of  her 
own  sex.  The  number  of  these  daily  increased.  The  doctrines 
of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  soon  became  public  and  generally  known ; 
and  Vane,  the  governor,  whose  prudence  always  forsook  him 
when  his  thoughts  were  turned  towards  religious  subjects,  es- 
poused the  wildest  of  her  tenets  with  the  zeal  which  character- 
ized the  times  in  which  he  lived.  She  maintained,  that  purity  of 
life  was  not  an  evidence  of  acceptance  with.  God ;  that  those  who 
inculcated  the  necessity  of  a  virtuous  conduct  preached  only 
a  covenant  of  works ;  and  that  as  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells  per- 
sonally in  such  as  are  justified,  they  have  no  occasion  for  posi- 
tive laws  to  regulate  their  actions.  These  tenets,  equally  hostile 
to  good  sense  and  pernicious  to  society,  were  adopted  and  de- 
fended by  many  of  the  colonists.  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  in  order  to 
separate  her  followers  from  such  as  opposed  her,  drew  a  marked 
line  of  distinction  between  them ;  the  former  she  described  as 
under  a  covenant  of  grace,  and  in  a  state  of  favour  with  the 
Almighty ;  and  the  latter,  as  under  a  covenant  of  works,  and 
the  objects  of  his  displeasure.  'Dissensions  prevailed  and  rose 
to  a  great  height.  Religious  conferences  were  held ;  days  of 
fasting  and  humiliation  were  appointed ;  a  general  synod  was 
called;  and,  at  last,  to  the  honour  of  our  rational  nature,  Mrs. 
Hutchinson's  opinions  were  condemned  as  erroneous ;  and  she 
herself  was  banished  from  the  colony.  It  was  after  this  de- 
cision that  Vane  quitted  the  settlement. 

But  whatever  the  pernicious  consequences  of  these  theological 
disputes  might  be,  they  certainly  contributed  to  the  more  speedy 
population  of  America.  The  proceedings  against  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson excited  no  little  disgust  in  the  minds  of  those  who  adhered 


28 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   ENGLAND. 


219 


BANISHMENT    OF    ROGER    WILLIAMS. 


to  her  sentiments.  A  party  of  these,  withdrawing  from  the  com- 
munion of  their  brethren,  joined  themselves  to  the  disciples  of 
Williams,  who  was  banished  from  Salem  in  the  year  1634 ;  and 
purchasing  from  the  Indians  an  island  in  Narraganset  Bay,  they 
gave  to  it  the  name  of  Rhode  Island,  and  settled  there.  The 
colony  of  Connecticut  owes  its  origin  to  the  dissensions  between 
Hooker  and  Cotton,  two  favourite  preachers  in  Massachusetts ; 
and  those  of  New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  chiefly  to  the  separa- 
tion of  Wheelwright,  a  proselyte  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  from  the 
rest  of  the  community  in  the  same  province. 

These  new  establishments  exposed  the  English  to  great 
dangers  from  the  Indians,  by  whom  they  were  surrounded.  The 
Pequods,  an  ancient  and  martial  tribe,  were  the  first  who  took 
the  alarm.  Relinquishing  their  former  animosities,  they  pro- 
posed to  the  Narragansets  that  they  should  unite  against  the 
common  enemy ;  whose  numbers  became  every  day  more  for- 
midable, and  whose  progress  threatened  them  both  with  indis- 
criminate ruin.     But  such  was  the  love  of  revenge,  or  the  want 


220  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

of  foresight  on  the  part  of  the  Narragansets,  that,  instead  of 
joining  with  the  Pequods  in  defence  of  their  country  and  their 
freedom,  they  communicated  the  proposal  which  had  been  made 
to  them  to  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  united  with 
him  against  the  Indians  whom  it  was  the  English  interest  to 
oppose.  The  Pequods,  exasperated  rather  than  discouraged, 
took  the  field,  and  laid  siege  to  Fort  Saybrooke.  Captain  Ten- 
derhill  was  despatched  to  its  relief;  and  it  was  agreed  by  the 
colonies  of  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  and  Connecticut,  that  they 
should  march  next  year  into  the  country  of  the  enemy,  and  put 
a  final  termination  to  their  hostilities.  The  troops  of  Connec- 
ticut were  first  in  motion.  But  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  was 
divided  about  the  covenant  of  works  and  the  covenant  of  grace. 
It  was  found  that  some,  both  of  the  officers  and  men  who  were 
to  fight  its  battles,  were  yet  under  the  covenant  of  works  ;  the 
others  therefore  declared,  that  the  blessing  of  God  could  not 
rest  on  the  arms  of  such  as  differed  from  them  on  this  metaphy- 
sical question  ;  and  it  was  not  till  after  much  alarm,  and  many 
changes,  that  they  were  sufficiently  pure  to  begin  the  war.  In 
the  meanwhile,  the  troops  of  Connecticut  were  obliged  to  ad- 
vance against  the  enemy.  The  Indians  were  posted  on  a  rising 
ground,  not  far  from  the  head  of  the  river  Mystic,  and  had  for- 
tified themselves  with  palisadoes,  the  only  method  of  defence 
with  which  they  were  acquainted.  They  had  been  deceived  by 
the  movement  of  the  English  vessels  from  Saybrooke  to  Narra- 
ganset ;  and,  imagining  that  the  expedition  was  abandoned,  had 
given  themselves  up  to  riot  and  security.  At  the  break  of  day, 
while  the  Indians  were  overpowered  with  sleep,  the  colonists  ap- 
proached ;  and  had  not  the  savages  been  alarmed  by  the  barking 
of  a  dog,  their  surprise  and  destruction  would  have  been  com- 
plete. They  instantly  raised  the  war-cry,  and  fiew  to  such  arms 
as  they  possessed.  But  though  their  courage  was  great,  they 
were  speedily  discomfited  by  the  discipline  and  bravery  of  the 
Europeans.  The  English  shot  at  them  through  the  palisadoes, 
forced  their  way  through  the  works,  and  set  fire  to  their  huts. 
Many  of  the  women  and  children  perished  in  the  flames.  The 
confusion  and  terror  became  general,  and  scarcely  any  of  the 
party  escaped.  This  blow  was  followed  by  others  equally  effec- 
tual. The  troops  of  Connecticut  being  reinforced  at  length  by 
those  of  Massachusetts,  they  pursued  the  enemy  from  one  retreat 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


221 


MASSACRE    OF    THE    P  E  Q  U  0  D  S. 


to  another ;  and  in  less  than  three  months,  the  Pequods  were  so 
completely  extirpated,  that  their  very  name  as  a  tribe  was  lost. 
A  few  individuals,  who  escaped  the  general  carnage,  were  incor- 
porated with  the  neighbouring  Indians. 

In  consequence  of  this  decisive  campaign,  which  was  marked 
by  cruelties  required  neither  by  good  policy  nor  by  necessity, 
the  English  enjoyed  a  long  tranquillity  in  all  their  colonies. 


t2 


222 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


RISE  OF  WALLENSTEIN. 


LBERT  of  Wallenstein  was  a  Bohe- 
mian by  birth,  and  had  been  brought 
up  in  the  Protestant  faith.  While  a 
schoolboy  at  Goldberg  in  Silesia,  he 
had  dreamed,  like  the  patriarch  Jo- 
seph, that  the  trees  of  the  forest  as 
well  as  his  fellow-students  bowed  down 
and  did  homage  before  him  ;  and,  at  a 
later  period,  had  studied  in  Italy  the 
mystical  science  which  taught  him  to  read  his  future  destiny 
in  those  fanciful  combinations  of  the  stars  named  by  astrologers 
the  houses  of  heaven.  Entering  the  Imperial  army,  he  distin- 
guished himself  in  Hungary  against  the  Turks ;  and,  having 
subsequently  married  a  rich  widow,  raised  with  her  money  a 
regiment  of  cuirassiers,  which  did  the  emperor  good  service 
during  the  Bohemian  insurrection.  By  a  second  wealthy  mar 
riage,  and  the  favour  of  his  master,  who  conferred  on  him  the 
dukedom  of  Friedland,  Wallenstein  became  so  powerful  that, 
when  it  was  proposed  to  him  to  raise  a  force  of  20,000  men,  he 
at  once  declared  that  he  was  willing  to  bring  50,000  into  the 
field.  This  proposal  was  eagerly  embraced  by  the  emperor, 
who  nominated  him  generalissimo  of  the  Imperial  forces.  In  a 
few  months  Wallenstein,  by  dint  of  profuse  gifts  and  still  more 
liberal  promises,  had  collected  an  army  of  adventurers  from  all 
the  countries  of  Europe.  The  discipline  of  this  ill-assorted 
body  was  suited  to  the  character  of  those  who  composed  it. 
Wallenstein  allowed  no  priests  in  the  camp,  winked  at  the  irre- 
gularities of  his  men  when  they  did  not  interfere  with  military 
duty,  rewarded  with  princely  munificence  those  who  distin- 
guished themselves,  and  promoted  the  bravest  of  his  common 
soldiers  to  posts  of  honour.  To  increase  his  influence  over  these 
wild  mercenaries,  Wallenstein  affected  a  mysterious  adoration 


W  A  I.  L  E  N  S  T  E  I  N. 


RISE  OF  WALLENSTEIlSf.  225 

of  the  goddess  Fortune,  whose  name  he  adopted  as  the  waten- 
word  of  his  army.  Hints  also  of  midnight  communings  with 
disembodied  spirits  were  uttered  under  their  breath  by  the  su- 
perstitious troopers,  whenever  their  general,  after  a  night  spent 
in  his  astrological  studies,  appeared  in  the  camp  with  a  counte- 
nance so  haggard  and  ghastly  as  well-nigh  to  warrant  the  be- 
lief that  his  hours  of  retirement  had  been  passed  in  converse 
with  the  powers  of  darkness.  Wallenstein's  great  object,  in 
assuming  this  command,  was  to  restore  the  Imperial  power  in 
its  fullest  extent :  "  We  want  no  princes,"  he  was  wont  to  say, 
"but  a  single  master,  as  in  France  and  Spain."  As  the  only 
opposition  to  this  plan  was  in  the  North  of  Germany,  (for  the 
weak  southern  princes  were  already  subjugated,)  Wallenstein,  in 
conjunction  with  Tilly,  marched  into  Holstein,  and  having  com- 
pelled the  king  of  Denmark  to  sign  an  ignominious  peace,  ap- 
peared with  his  army  before  the  strongly  fortified  town  of  Stral- 
sund,  which  would  have  surrendered  at  the  first  summons,  had 
not  the  burghers,  disgusted  at  the  cowardice  of  their  magis- 
trates, taken  the  matter  into  their  own  hands,  and  prepared  for 
an  obstinate  resistance.  Irritated  at  this  disappointment,  Wal- 
lenstein swore  that  he  would  take  the  place,  though  it  were 
bound  to  heaven  with  chains  of  iron ;  but  the  brave  citizens, 
reinforced  by  two  thousand  Swedes  and  a  body  of  Scotch  mer- 
cenaries in  the  pay  of  Denmark,  made  so  obstinate  a  defence 
that  he  was  compelled  to  raise  the  siege  after  losing  12,000 
men.  This  check  decided  for  the  present  the  fate  of  Europe. 
Wallenstein,  no  longer  deemed  invincible,  and  violently  opposed 
by  the  Jesuits,  fell  into  disgrace,  and,  being  formally  deprived 
of  his  command,  retired  to  Prague.  His  army  was  partly  dis- 
banded, and  partly  incorporated  with  the  troops  of  Tilly,  who 
proceeded  to  invest  Magdeburg,  where  the  people  had  success- 
fully resisted  an  edict  of  the  emperor  for  the  suppression  of 
Protestant  worship. 


24> 


226 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


QUSTATUS    ADOLPHUS. 


EVENTS  OF  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR— GUS- 
TAVUS  ADOLPHUS— BATTLE  OF  LEIPSIC. 


ROM  Holland  to  the  Carinthian  moun- 
tains, and  from  Prussia  to  the  Alps  of 
Berne,  wherever  the  German  tongue  was 
spoken,  Luther's  and  Calvin's  doctrines 
had  penetrated,  and  found  a  way  to  the 
hearts  of  the  people.  "With  the  excep- 
tion of  Bavaria  and  the  Tyrol,  every  dis- 
trict of  Germany  had  at  one  time  or  other  fought  for  liberty  of 
conscience  ;  yet  there  now  remained  no  vestige  of  it  except  in 
the  single  city  of  Magdeburg,  whose  brave  defenders  still  held 
out  against  the  assaults  of  Tilly.  In  the  midst  of  this  melan- 
choly prospect,  a  new  ray  of  hope  broke  through  the  clouds 
which  hovered  over  Protestant  Germany.  The  throne  of 
Sweden  was  at  this  time  occupied  by  Gustavus  Adolphus,  a 
zealous  and  sincere  supporter  of  the  Reformation,  who  had 
long  witnessed  with  grief  the  sufferings  of  his  brethren  in  Ger- 
many, but  had  hitherto  been  debarred  from  rendering  them  any 


EVENTS  OF  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR.  227 

assistance  by  the  wars  in  which  he  was  engaged  with  Denmark 
and  Poland.  Yet  these  very  wars  had  given  him  that  unri- 
valled military  knowledge  which  afterwards  produced  such  glo- 
rious results.  His  Swedes  were  the  best  and  most  formidable 
soldiers  of  that  day,  warlike  by  nature,  hardened  by  their  se- 
vere climate,  thoroughly  disciplined,  experienced  in  the  field, 
full  of  confidence,  and,  more  than  all,  inspired  by  a  strong 
religious  conviction  that  the  cause  for  which  they  drew  their 
swords  was  favoured  by  the  Almighty.  As  soon,  therefore,  as 
Gustavus  had  secured  an  honourable  peace  with  Denmark  and 
Poland,  he  had  both  leisure  to  undertake,  and  thousands  of 
brave  spirits  ready  to  aid  him  in  accomplishing,  the  defence  of 
his  brethren  in  Germany.  Besides  his  zeal  for  the  common 
cause,  the  Swedish  king  had  also  private  injuries  to  avenge  : 
Austrians  had  fought  against  him  in  the  ranks  of  the  Polish 
army,  and  Wallenstein  had  insulted  his  ambassador,  without  his 
having  been  able  in  either  case  to  obtain  satisfaction.  On  the 
20th  of  May,  1630,  Gustavus  Adolphus  entered  the  senate- 
house  at  Stockholm,  to  take  a  solemn  farewell  of  the  estates  of 
his  kingdom.  He  had  already  made  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments for  the  administration  of  public  affairs  during  his  ab- 
sence, and  set  his  house  in  order,  as  one  who  was  about  to  go 
forth  to  death.  Taking  his  young  daughter  Christina  in  his 
arms,  he  presented  her  to  the  estates  as  his  successor,  and 
caused  them  to  swear  fidelity  to  her,  in  the  event  of  his  never 
returning.  He  then  read  a  paper,  in  which  his  wishes  respecting 
the  government  of  the  country  during  his  absence,  or,  in  case 
of  his  death,  during  the  minority  of  his  daughter,  were  dis- 
tinctly explained.  The  whole  assembly  melted  into  tears,  and 
the  king  himself  was  so  deeply  affected,  that  some  minutes 
elapsed  before  he  could  summon  sufficient  firmness  to  pronounce 
his  farewell  address.  "  It  is  not  lightly,  or  without  due  delibe- 
ration," thus  he  began,  "that  I  involve  myself  and  you  in  this 
new  and  dangerous  war.  Almighty  God  is  my  witness,  that  I 
fight  not  for  mine  own  pleasure.  The  emperor  has  offered  me, 
in  the  person  of  my  ambassador,  the  grossest  insults ;  he  has 
assisted  my  enemies,  my  friends  and  brethren  he  persecutes, 
tramples  my  religion  in  the  dust,  and  stretches  out  his  hand  to 
seize  my  crown.  The  oppressed  people  of  Germany  urgently 
implore  our  aid,  and,  if  it  please  God,  they  shall  not  be  disap- 


228  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

pointed.  I  know  the  dangers  to  which  my  life  will  be  exposed: 
these  I  have  never  shunned,  nor  do  I  hope  eventually  to  escape 
them.  It  is  true  that,  until  the  present  hour,  the  Almighty  hath 
marvellously  preserved  me:  but  I  shall  die  at  last  in  defence 
of  my  native  land.  I  commend  you  all  to  the  protection  of 
Heaven.  Be  upright,  be  conscientious,  walk  unblamably :  so  shall 
we  meet  one  another  again  in  eternity.  To  you,  my  counsellors, 
I  first  address  myself, — may  God  enlighten  you,  and  fill  you 
with  wisdom,  that  you  may  ever  advise  that  which  conduces 
most  to  the  welfare  of  my  kingdom.  You,  brave  nobles,  I 
commend  to  the  protection  of  God.  Go  forth,  and  prove  your- 
selves worthy  descendants  of  those  heroic  Goths  who  laid  an- 
cient Rome  in  the  dust.  You,  ministers  of  the  church,  I  exhort 
to  unanimity  and  concord.  Be  yourselves  ensamples  of  those 
virtues  which  ye  preach,  and  abuse  not  your  dominion  over  the 
souls  of  my  people.  To  you,  deputies  of  the  burgher  and  pea- 
sant orders,  I  wish  the  blessing  of  Heaven,  a  joyful  harvest  to 
reward  your  toils,  fulness  to  your  barns,  and  abundance  of  all 
the  good  things  of  life.  For  all,  absent  as  well  as  present,  I 
offer  my  prayers  to  Heaven.  I  now  bid  you  affectionately  fare- 
well— Farewell !  perhaps  for  ever."  On  the  24th  of  June,  the 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  Gustavus 
Adolphus  landed  at  Usedom  in  the  midst  of  a  violent  thunder- 
storm. As  soon  as  he  touched  the  German  soil,  he  fell  on  his 
knees,  and  called  God  to  witness  that  this  campaign  was  under- 
taken, not  for  his  own  honour,  but  in  the  cause  of  the  gospel. 
His  army  at  this  time  consisted  of  only  16,000  men,  among 
whom  were  thirty  companies  of  Germans  ;  and  so  little  sensa- 
tion did  his  landing  produce,  that  the  people  of  Vienna  called 
him  in  derision  the  "  Snow  King,"  who  would  melt  away  as  he 
approached  the  south.  The  Protestants,  on  the  other  hand, 
looked  to  him  as  their  deliverer,  and  named  him  the  "  Lion  of 
the  North."  He  was  of  gigantic  height,  with  an  open  counte- 
nance, large  blue  eyes,  and  a  mild  but  majestic  bearing;  pre- 
senting in  his  whole  appearance  a  remarkable  contrast  to  the 
gloomy  Wallenstein,  the  ferocious  Tilly,  and  most  of  the  Ger- 
man princes,  who  affected  a  mysterious  demeanour,  to  cover 
their  low  plans  of  personal  ambition.  Finding  himself  unsup- 
ported by  the  northern  Protestants,  Gustavus  told  the  duke  of 
Mecklenburg,  it  was  his  intention  to  march  on  Magdeburg,  and 


EVENTS  OF  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR.  229 

relieve  that  city:  "  If  none  will  stand  by  me,"  continued  he, 
"I  shall  at  once  retire,  make  the  best  peace  I  can  with  the 
emperor,  and  return  to  Stockholm.  This  I  shall  have  little 
difficulty  in  effecting  :  but  at  the  day  of  judgment  you  must 
give  an  account  for  having  abandoned  the  cause  of  God  and 
of  his  gospel — yea,  even  in  this  world  you  will  have  your  re- 
ward." The  electors  of  Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  who  were 
well  aware  how  valuable  their  friendship  must  be  to  either  side, 
held  back  for  a  time,  observing  an  armed  neutrality,  which 
Gustavus  would  not  break  up  by  violent  means,  lest  he  should 
at  once  furnish  them  with  an  excuse  for  joining  the  emperor. 
This  unfortunate  delay  decided  the  fate  of  Magdeburg,  which 
had  received  no  aid  from  Gustavus  except  the  sending  them  one 
of  his  officers,  Colonel  Falkenstein,  who  entered  the  place  in 
the  disguise  of  a  boatman,  and  took  command  of  the  feeble 
and  dispirited  garrison.  On  the  night  of  the  10th  of  May, 
1631,  the  Imperial  party  within  the  walls  called  loudly  for  sur- 
render. At  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Falkenstein  hastened 
to  the  town-hall,  and,  while  he  was  in  consultation  with  the 
magistrates,  Pappenheim,  without  waiting  for  orders  from  Tilly, 
scaled  the  walls  at  a  place  where  the  sentinel  was  unfortunately 
asleep,  and  before  an  alarm  could  be  given,  appeared  with  his 
men  in  front  of  the  hall.  Falkenstein  rushed  out,  and  was 
instantly  shot  dead.  Still  the  citizens,  in  spite  of  the  over- 
whelming force  brought  against  them,  resisted  bravely,  until 
their  powder  failed,  when  they  were  obliged  to  surrender  at 
discretion.  Meanwhile  the  rest  of  the  Imperialists  had  entered 
at  two  undefended  gates,  and  a  scene  ensued  too  horrible  for 
description.  Even  a  humane  general  might  have  found  it  im- 
possible to  restrain  such  troops  in  the  moment  of  victory  ;  but 
this  the  ferocious  old  man  who  commanded  the  Imperialists  did 
not  even  attempt.  Some  officers,  who  implored  him  to  have 
mercy  on  the  unresisting  citizens,  were  ordered  to  return  in  an 
hour  ;  "  I  will  then,"  said  he,  "  see  what  can  be  done  ;  but  the 
soldier  must  have  something  for  his  labour  and  danger."  In 
less  than  half  that  time,  the  work  of  blood  was  at  its  height. 
The  furious  soldiers  spared  neither  age  nor  sex.  Almost  all 
the  men  were  beheaded,  and  a  great  number  of  the  women. 
Two  clergymen  were  slain  as  they  stood  before  the  altar.  On 
entering  the  town,  Pappenheim  had  ordered  some  houses  to  be 

u 


230  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

set  on  fire ;  the  wind  being  strong,  the  flames  soon  spread,  and 
in  a  short  time  the  whole  city,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
houses  and  the  cathedral,  was  a  heap  of  ashes.  These  scenes 
continued  until  the  13th,  when  Tilly  himself  entered,  and  re- 
stored discipline.  Four  thousand  persons,  who  had  taken  re- 
fuge in  the  fire-proof  cathedral,  were  admitted  to  quarter,  and 
for  the  first  time  during  three  days  obtained  something  to  eat. 
It  is  said  that  they  owed  this  favour  to  the  vanity  of  Tilly,  who 
was  flattered  at  being  addressed  in  a  Latin  oration  by  one  of 
their  preachers.  The  terrible  commander,  in  a  sort  of  masque- 
rading dress,  which  at  any  other  time  would  have  excited 
laughter, — wearing  a  short  jacket  of  green  satin,  and  a  high- 
crowned  hat  with  a  long  red  feather  which  drooped  over  his 
ghastly  countenance,  his  whole  appearance  being,  we  are  told, 
that  of  a  lunatic  mountebank, — rode  slowly  through  the  town, 
gloating  on  the  heaps  of  dead  bodies  with  which  the  streets 
were  covered.  In  a  letter  to  the  emperor,  he  speaks  of  this 
scene  of  murder  and  desolation  as  the  greatest  victory  that  had 
been  achieved  since  the  taking  of  Troy  and  Jerusalem.  "And 
sincerely,"  he  adds,  "  do  I  pity  the  ladies  of  your  Imperial 
family,  that  they  could  not  be  present  as  spectators  of  the 
same."  Gustavus  Adolphus  now  resolved,  come  what  might, 
no  longer  to  spare  the  electors  whose  indecision  had  caused  this 
terrible  calamity.  On  the  11th  of  June,  he  appeared  before 
Berlin,  and  offered  George  William  the  choice  either  of  instantly 
joining  him,  or  seeing  his  capital  laid  in  ashes.  The  terrified 
elector,  after  a  little  resistance,  signed  the  treaty  of  alliance  ; 
and  Gustavus  garrisoned  the  fortresses  of  Berlin,  Spandau,  and 
Kiistrin.  Tilly,  having  been  repulsed  on  the  Hessian  frontier, 
had  marched  to  the  great  plain  of  Leipzic,  in  the  hope  of  ter- 
rifying the  elector  of  Saxony  into  an  alliance :  but  that  prince 
now  declared  himself  on  the  side  of  the  Swedes  ;  and  eighteen 
thousand  Saxons  having  joined  Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  allied 
army  advanced  on  Leipzic,  which  was  already  in  the  hands  of 
Tilly.  The  difference  between  the  Swedish  and  Imperial  armies, 
which  now  met  for  the  first  time,  was  very  remarkable.  In  the 
camp  of  Gustavus  religious  service  was  regularly  performed, 
sometimes  to  the  army  in  general,  on  which  occasions  the  king 
was  always  present,  sometimes  by  the  chaplain  of  each  regiment 
to  those  more  immediately  intrusted  to  his  charge.      The  kind- 


EVENTS  OF  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR.        231 

ness  with  which  the  Swedish  soldiers  treated  the  unarmed  citi- 
zens and  peasants,  the  strict  morality  of  their  lives,  and  the 
gentleness  of  their  manners,  rendered  them  universally  objects 
of  respect  and  love,  and  presented  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
fearful  oaths  and  shouts  of  licentious  revelry  with  which  Tilly's 
camp  resounded  day  and  night,  and  to  the  cruelties  practised 
by  his  soldiers  on  the  defenceless  inhabitants.  The  Swedish 
troops  had  lately  been  equipped  by  Gustavus  Adolphus  with  a 
view  to  rapid  movements  ;  they  therefore  wore  no  armour,  and 
were  accompanied  by  only  a  very  light  train  of  field  artillery. 
The  Imperialists,  on  the  contrary,  wore  cuirasses^  greaves,  and 
helmets,  had  much  less  discipline  among  them  than  the  Swedes, 
and  were  encumbered  by  heavy  ordnance.  Tilly  had  intended 
to  await  the  coming  up  of  two  of  his  generals  with  reinforce- 
ments, before  he  engaged  the  enemy ;  although  his  own  force 
amounted  to  40,000  men,  a  number  equal  to  that  of  the  united 
Swedish  and  Saxon  army ;  but  the  impetuous  Pappenheim  hav- 
ing entangled  himself  in  a  skirmish  with  the  Swedes,  Tilly  was 
obliged  to  march  to  his  assistance,  muttering,  as  he  went,  "  That 
fellow  will  ruin  me  yet  in  honour  and  reputation,  and  the  em- 
peror in  land  and  people."  Gustavus  Adolphus,  dressed  in  a 
simple  gray  surtout,  with  a  white  hat  and  gray  feather,  rode  in 
front  of  the  line,  and  exhorted  his  men  to  fight  bravely.  The 
Swedes  composed  the  right  wing,  the  Saxons  the  left.  Tilly's 
army  formed,  according  to  the  ancient  mode  of  warfare,  one 
long  line ;  but  Gustavus  had  broken  his  force  into  several  small 
masses.  The  imperial  artillery  was  planted  on  the  ridge  of  a 
low  hill  immediately  behind  the  army.  The  battle  began  on 
the  7th  of  September,  1631,  with  a  furious  cannonade,  which 
lasted  two  hours.  Then  Tilly,  abandoning  his  position  on  the 
hills,  marched  to  meet  the  Swedes  ;  but  their  fire  was  so  galling 
that  he  was  obliged  to  make  a  movement  to  the  right,  and  at- 
tack the  Saxons,  who  soon  fled  in  confusion.  Meanwhile  Pap- 
penheim, at  the  head  of  his  terrible  cuirassiers,  had  seven  times 
charged  the  Swedes,  and  as  often  been  driven  back  with  great 
loss.  While  Tilly  was  engaged  with  the  Saxons,  the  Swedes 
attacked  him  in  flank,  captured  his  artillery,  and,  turning  it 
against  himself,  threw  both  him  and  Pappenheim  into  irrecove- 
rable confusion.  Four  regiments  of  veterans,  who  had  become 
gray  in   the  Imperial   service,  resolved  to   be  cut  to   pieces 


232  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

rather  than  yield.  In  detached  bodies,  they  forced  their  way 
through  the  midst  of  the  victorious  army,  and  reached  a  little 
wood,  where  they  continued  to  fight  until  night  came  on.  The 
rest  of  the  army  fled  in  disorder,  pursued  by  the  Swedes,  who 
cut  down  hundreds  of  the  fugitives.  In  all  the  villages  around 
the  tocsin  was  rung,  and  the  peasants  rusned  out  to  wreak  ven- 
geance on  their  oppressors.  Meanwhile  Tilly,  a  veteran  soldier 
of  seventy-two  years  of  age,  who  had  never  before  either  sus- 
tained a  defeat  or  been  wounded,  stood  like  a  monument  of  de- 
spair, stupified  and  motionless.  Three  bullets  had  already 
pierced  his  body ;  but  he  refused  to  surrender  himself,  and  a 
Swedish  officer  (called  by  the  soldiers  "  Long  Fritz")  was  in  the 
act  of  cutting  him  down,  when  he  was  rescued  by  Duke  Ru- 
dolph of  Lauenburg.  The  miserable  remains  of  his  army  took 
refuge  in  Haberstadt,  where  Tilly  joined  them.  During  his 
flight  the  curses  of  the  peasants  rang  in  his  ears,  and  he  was 
exasperated  beyond  measure  at  hearing  everywhere  the  words 
of  a  rude  song,  in  which  his  defeat  was  celebrated,  and  the 
chorus  "  Fly,  Tilly,  fly  !"  howled  by  hundreds  of  voices.  After 
this  victory  the  country  people  rose  in  a  mass,  and  joined  the 
standard  of  Gustavus  in  such  numbers  that  in  a  few  days  his 
army  was  stronger  than  it  had  been  before  the  battle. 


30 


v2 


BATTLE  OF  LUTZEN. 


235 


DEATH  OF  TILLY— BATTLE  OF  LUTZEN- 
DEATH  OF  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS. 


EAVING  his  generals  Baudis  and 
Banner  to  follow  up  his  successes  in 
Northern  Germany,  Gustavus  marched 
to  Erfurt,  and  thence  through  the  Thu- 
ringian  forest  to  Wiirtzburg,  Frank- 
fort, and  Mainz.  Spiers,  Landau,  and 
many  other  places  had  already  declared 
for  the  Swedes;  and  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine  and  the  Neckar  resounded  with 
shouts  of  joy,  as  the  army  of  the  liberator  advanced.  The 
Swedish  soldiers,  on  their  part,  delighted  with  the  beauty  of 
the  country,  and  revelling  in  the  unaccustomed  luxuries  of  wine 
and  wheaten  bread,  were  eager  to  hold  out  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship  to  men  who  received  them  so  kindly. 

Ulm  sent  a  deputation  to  congratulate  Gustavus  on  his 
successes.  The  count  palatine,  Christian  of  Birkenfeld,  re- 
cruited for  his  army ;  Frederick  of  Bohemia  returned  to 
his  palatinate;  and,  to  crown  the  satisfaction  of  the  Swedish 
king,  his  wife  Eleanora  joined  him  at  Frankfort.  Mean- 
while "that  old  devil,  Tilly,"  (as  Gustavus  always  called  him,) 
had  begun  to  rally,  and,  after  taking  the  town  of  Rotenburg, 
was  intrenching  himself  in  a  strong  position  at  Rain  on  the 
Lech,  in  order  to  cover  Bavaria.  Maximilian,  with  a  consider- 
able force,  was  also  encamped  in  the  same  neighbourhood.  The 
works  on  the  Lech  were  nearly  completed,  when  Gustavus,  ad- 
vancing to  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river,  commenced  a  cannon- 
ade, which  was  kept  up  during  three  days  without  intermission. 
At  the  end  of  that  time,  the  Imperialists  became  first  aware 
that  the  enemy's  engineers,  under  cover  of  the  smoke,  had  suc- 
ceeded in  constructing  a  bridge,  over  which  a  considerable  por- 


236  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

tion  of  their  army  had  already  crossed  the  river.  In  a  trans- 
port of  rage,  Tilly  rushed  forward  to  meet  the  Swedes ;  but 
his  course  was  arrested  by  a  cannon-ball,  which  shattered  his 
thigh,  and  produced  so  ghastly  a  wound  that  he  shortly  after- 
wards died  in  great  agony,  advising  the  emperor,  with  his  last 
breath,  at  whatever  sacrifice  of  life  or  treasure,  to  secure  Ra- 
tisbon,  the  key  of  Austria  and  Bavaria.  Gustavus  now  marched 
to  Augsburg,  where  he  caused  the  gospel  to  be  proclaimed,  and 
thence  to  Munich,  the  gates  of  which  were  opened  to  him  on 
his  promising  to  spare  the  place.  By  his  side  rode  Frederick, 
the  deposed  king  of  Bohemia,  accompanied  by  his  queen,  and  a 
large  monkey  dressed  in  the  frock  and  hood  of  a  Capuchin 
friar.  In  different  parts  of  the  city  were  found  one  hundred 
and  forty  pieces  of  cannon,  which  the  Bavarians  had  buried, 
after  filling  them  to  the  muzzle  with  gold  and  precious  stones. 
Maximilian  would  gladly  have  made  peace,  but  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  in  no  very  courtly  language,  told  him  that  he  was  not  to 
be  trusted,  adding  some  coarse  remarks  better  suited  to  the 
manners  of  that  day  than  to  the  more  refined  taste  of  modern 
readers.  The  loss  of  Tilly  now  compelled  the  emperor  to  enter 
into  negotiation  with  the  only  general  who  was  capable  of  com- 
manding an  Imperial  army  at  this  critical  juncture.  Since  his 
disgrace,  Wallenstein  had  been  living  at  Prague  in  more  than 
regal  state.  His  palace  stood  on  the  sites  of  several  hundred 
houses,  which  had  been  pulled  down  to  make  room  for  the  build- 
ing :  his  gardens  were  full  of  handsome  fountains  and  aviaries, 
some  of  which  were  so  large  that  tall  trees  were  enclosed  within 
their  wires :  boys  of  noble  family  waited  upon  him  as  pages, 
and  many  of  his  former  officers  were  still  in  his  service.  His 
smallest  present  was  a  thousand  dollars  ;  the  lightest  punish- 
ment which  he  inflicted  was  death.  During  his  retirement,  he 
had  been  endeavouring  to  bring  about  an  alliance  between  Den- 
mark, Saxony,  and  the  empire,  under  the  auspices,  as  it  was 
generally  supposed,  of  the  emperor  himself,  although  he  after- 
wards thought  proper  to  deny  that  he  had  corresponded  with 
the  duke  of  Friedland  on  that  or  any  other  subject  during  his 
banishment.  The  overtures  of  Ferdinand  were  received  very 
coldly  by  Wallenstein,  who  refused  to  listen  to  any  proposals 
until  he  was  satisfied  that  the  emperor  was  willing  to  reinstate 
him  on  terms  dictated  by  himself.     The  conditions,  which  se- 


BATTLE  OF  LUTZEN.  237 

cured  to  him  an  irresponsible  command,  having  been  at  last 
conceded,  the  new  dictator  commenced  recruiting,  and  in  a  few 
months  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  army,  with 
which  he  easily  drove  the  Saxons  out  of  Bohemia.  Gustavus 
Adolphus  had  wished  to  return  to  Bavaria,  and  carry  the  war 
into  the  heart  of  the  Romanist  states ;  but  intelligence  having 
reached  him  that  Wallenstein  had  taken  Leipzic,  he  at  once 
determined  to  march  northwards,  and  on  the  27th  of  October 
arrived  at  Erfurt,  where  he  took  leave  of  his  wife,  with  a  me- 
lancholy foreboding  that  they  were  to  meet  no  more  on  this  side 
the  grave.  On  the  1st  of  November  he  reached  Naumberg, 
whither  the  inhabitants  of  the  surrounding  country  flocked  in 
crowds  to  gaze  on  the  hero.  Wherever  he.  appeared,  shouts  of 
joy  and  affection  welcomed  him,  thousands  flinging  themselves 
on  their  knees  and  struggling  with  one  another  for  the  privilege 
of  kissing  his  feet  or  the  sheath  of  his  sword.  This  homage, 
although  only  the  outpouring  of  gratitude  and  admiration, 
grievously  disconcerted  Gustavus.  "  Is  it  not,"  he  said  to  his 
attendants,  «  as  though  this  people  were  making  a  god  of  me? 
I  pray  that  the  vengeance  of  the  Almighty  may  not  fall  on  us 
for  this  audacious  mummery,  and  show  these  foolish  crowds  but 
too  soon  that  I  am  only  a  poor,  weak,  sinful  mortal."  "  Thus," 
says  Schiller,  "  did  he  prove  himself  doubly  worthy  of  their 
tears,  as  the  moment  drew  nigh  which  was  to  bid  them  flow." 
Having  discovered  through  an  intercepted  letter  that  Pappen- 
heim  had  been  detached  to  lay  siege  to  Halle,  and  that  the  Im- 
perial troops  were  dispersed  in  winter-quarters,  Gustavus  aban- 
doned his  intention  of  joining  the  elector,  and  advanced  at  once 
to  attack  Wallenstein.  Three  guns  from  the  castle  of  Weissen- 
fels  gave  the  signal  to  the  Imperialists  that  the  Swedish  army 
was  in  sight.  Wallenstein  instantly  drew  his  regiments  together, 
and  despatched  messengers  to  command  the  immediate  return 
of  Pappenheim.  On  the  6th  of  November,  Gustavus  drew  up 
his  forces  in  nearly  the  same  order  which  the  year  before  had 
insured  him  the  victory  at  Leipzic.  The  whole  army  formed 
two  lines,  having  a  canal  on  their  right  and  in  their  rear,  the 
high  road  in  front,  and  the  village  of  Lutzen  on  their  left.  The 
infantry,  under  Count  von  Brake,  occupied  the  centre,  the 
cavalry  the  wings,  and  the  artillery  the  front  of  the  whole  line. 
Duke  Bernard  of  Saxe  Weimar  commanded  the  left  wing,  and 


238  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

the  king  himself  with  his  Swedish  cavalry  took  up  his  position 
on  the  right.  The  order  of  battle  of  the  second  line  was  the 
same  as  that  of  the  first ;  and  behind  it  was  stationed  a  corps 
de  reserve  under  the  command  of  Henderson,  a  Scotchman. 
On  the  evening  before  the  battle,  Wallenstein  deepened  the 
trenches  on  each  side  of  the  high  road  which  divided  the  two 
armies,  and  placed  a  strong  body  of  musketeers  behind  the 
mounds  formed  by  the  earth  thrown  out  of  them.  In  the  rear 
of  these  was  a  battery  of  seven  heavy  guns ;  and  on  an  emi- 
nence behind  Liitzen,  on  which  stood  a  windmill,  were  planted 
fourteen  lighter  pieces,  which  commanded  a  great  part  of  the 
field.  The  infantry,  in  five  unwieldy  divisions,  were  stationed 
about  three  hundred  paces  in  the  rear  of  the  high  road,  their 
flanks  being  covered  by  cavalry.  To  conceal  his  weakness, 
Wallenstein  ordered  all  the  horse-boys  and  camp-servants  to 
mount  and  form  on  the  left  wing,  where  they  were  to  remain 
until  the  arrival  of  Pappenheim  should  supply  their  places  with 
more  efficient  warriors.  All  these  dispositions  were  made  in 
the  dead  of  night ;  and  the  two  armies  awaited  the  dawn  of 
that  bloody  morning  which  should  prove  whether  Gustavus  was 
indebted  for  his  previous  successes  to  his  own  genius,  or  to  the 
unskilfulness  of  his  opponents.  The  day  at  length  broke ;  but 
an  impenetrable  fog  lay  spread  over  the  whole  plain,  and  pre- 
vented any  movement  of  the  two  armies  until  near  midday.  In 
front  of  the  Swedish  line,  Gustavus  Adolphus  knelt  down,  and 
offered  up  his  prayer  to  the  god  of  battles,  while  the  whole 
army  raised  Luther's  battle-hymn,  "A  steadfast  fortress  is  our 
God,"  the  field-music  of  the  different  regiments  playing  a  solemn 
accompaniment.  The  king  then  mounted  his  horse,  with  no 
defence  but  a  buff-coat,  the  pain  of  a  recent  wound  rendering 
the  weight  and  pressure  of  his  armour  insupportable ;  and  rode 
through  the  ranks,  speaking  cheerfully  to  the  soldiers,  and 
striving  to  inspire  them  with  hopes  which  his  own  melancholy 
foreboding  prevented  him  from  feeling.  «  God  with  us,"  was 
the  battle-cry  of  the  Swedes;  "Jesu  Maria,"  that  of  the  Im- 
perialists. The  fog  in  some  measure  dispersing  about  eleven 
o'clock,  the  two  armies  began  to  be  visible  to  each  other,  and 
at  the  same  moment  the  village  of  Liitzen  was  discovered  to  be 
in  flames,  having  been  set  on  fire  by  order  of  the  duke  of  Fried- 
land,  lest  he  should  be  outflanked  on  that  side.     Half  an  hour 


BATTLE  OF  LUTZEN.  239 

later  Gustavus  gave  the  signal  of  attack,  and  the  Swedish 
infantry  rushed  forward  to  carry  the  trenches,  but  a  murderous 
fire  of  artillery  and  small  arms  compelled  them  to  retreat.  The 
voice  of  Gustavus  soon  rallied  them,  and  they  fought  with  great 
fury,  but  without  making  any  impression  on  the  Imperialists, 
until  Colonel  Winkel,  with  a  regiment  of  cavalry,  forced  his 
way  across  two  of  the  trenches,  followed  by  the  Swedish  body- 
guard. The  battery  was  soon  carried  and  the  guns  turned 
against  the  Imperialists, — then  re-taken  by  Wallenstein, — and 
again  carried  by  the  Swedes,  whose  right  wing  was  everywhere 
victorious,  but  their  left,  galled  by  the  heavy  fire  from  the 
windmill  battery,  was  beginning  to  give  way,  when  Gustavus 
rode  forward  for  the  purpose  of  rallying  them.  The  swiftness 
of  his  horse  rendering  it  impossible  for  the  heavy  cavalry  to 
keep  pace  with  their  leader,  he  soon  found  himself  almost  alone 
in  the  midst  of  the  enemy.  Here  a  subaltern  of  the  Imperial 
army,  observing  the  respect  with  which  the  unknown  officer 
was  treated  by  his  few  followers,  naturally  concluded  that  he 
was  a  person  of  importance,  and  called  out  to  a  musketeer, 
"  Shoot  that  man,  for  I  am  sure  he  is  an  officer  of  high  rank." 
The  soldier  immediately  fired,  and  the  king's  left  arm  fell  pow- 
erless by  his  side.  At  this  moment  a  wild  cry  was  raised, 
"  The  king  bleeds  ;  the  king  is  wounded."  "  It  is  nothing," 
shouted  Gustavus;  "follow  me."  But  the  pain  soon  brought 
on  faintness,  and  he  desired  the  duke  of  Lauenburg,  in  French, 
to  lead  him  out  of  the  throng.  While  the  duke  was  endea- 
vouring to  withdraw  him  without  being  noticed  by  the  troops, 
a  second  shot  struck  Gustavus  and  deprived  him  of  his  little 
remaining  strength.  "  I  have  enough,  brother,"  he  said,  in  a 
feeble  voice  to  the  duke  ;  "  try  to  save  your  own  life."  At  the 
same  moment  he  fell  from  his  horse,  and  in  a  short  time 
breathed  his  last.  His  horse,  bathed  in  blood,  and  galloping 
wildly  about  the  field,  gave  the  first  intimation  to  the  Swedish 
cavalry  that  their  king  had  fallen  :  a  furious  struggle  for  the 
recovery  of  his  remains  then  took  place  between  them  and  the 
Croatians  ;  and  the  disfigured  corpse  of  Gustavus  was  soon 
buried  beneath  a  heap  of  dead.  Meanwhile,  the  sorrowful 
tidings  had  reached  the  main  body,  and  goaded  the  Swedes 
almost  to  desperation.  They  fought  with  a  fury  which  nothing 
could  resist ;  and  the  enemy  was  already  retreating,  when  Pap- 


240  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

penheim  appeared,  and  the  battle  began  afresh.  Nothing  could 
exceed  the  fierceness  of  the  second  engagement.  The  Swedish 
yellow  regiment,  the  flower  of  their  army,  lay  dead,  each  man 
in  his  rank,  without  having  yielded  an  inch  of  ground.  Count 
Piccoluomini,  one  of  the  Imperial  generals,  had  seven  horses 
shot  under  him,  and  received  six  wounds ;  but  would  not  quit 
his  post  until  the  battle  was  decided.  Wallenstein  rode  through 
the  field  like  one  bearing  a  charmed  life  ;  right  and  left  his 
attendants  fell,  and  his  cloak  was  pierced  through  and  through 
with  bullets  ;  yet  he  escaped  unwounded,  to  fall  at  last  by  the 
hand  of  an  assassin.  Pappenheim  received  two  shots  in  his 
breast  and  was  carried  out  of  the  battle.  Whilst  they  were 
conveying  him  to  the  rear  a  rumour,  reached  him  that  his  great 
rival  was  slain.  The  countenance  of  the  dying  man  brightened 
at  this  intelligence.  "  Tell  the  duke  of  Friedland,"  he  said, 
"  that  I  lie  here  without  hope  of  life,  but  I  die  in  peace,  know- 
ing that  the  enemy  of  my  faith  has  also  fallen."  The  mists  of 
evening  put  an  end  to  the  fight.  So  little  were  the  Swedes 
aware  of  the  advantage  which  they  had  gained,  that  the  ques- 
tion of  an  immediate  retreat  was  seriously  discussed  between 
Bernard  of  Saxe  Weimar  and  General  Kniphausen  ;  and  great 
was  their  surprise  when  the  light  of  morning  made  them  aware 
that  Wallenstein  had  withdrawn  his  troops  and  left  them  mas- 
ters of  the  field.  Had  Pappenheim's  reinforcement  arrived  a 
few  hours  earlier,  the  event  would  probably  have  been  different ; 
and  even  as  it  was,  something  might  have  been  done  to  save 
the  materiel  of  the  army  from  falling  into  the  enemy's  hands ; 
but  Pappenheim's  fall  and  the  disabled  condition  of  most  of  his 
men  seem  to  have  paralyzed  the  hitherto  fearless  spirit  of  Wal- 
lenstein ;  for  leaving  his  artillery,  his  colours,  and  the  greater 
part  of  his  small  arms  on  the  field,  he  commenced  a  disorderly 
retreat  towards  Leipzic,  and  the  next  morning  was  followed  by 
the  miserable  remnants  of  his  army.  He  made,  it  is  true,  a 
feeble  attempt  to  regain  the  ground,  by  sending  out  a  body  of 
Croatians  to  hover  round  the  scene  of  action  ;  but  the  sight  of 
the  Swedish  army,  drawn  up  in  good  order  between  Liitzen  and 
Weissenfels,  soon  scared  away  these  irregular  skirmishers ;  and 
Bernard  of  Saxe  Weimar,  who  succeeded  Gustavus  in  command 
of  the  Swedes,  retained  undisturbed  possession  of  the  field. 
But  the  victory  was  dearly  purchased.     More  than  nine  thou- 


BATTLE  OF  LUTZEN.  241 

sand  men  lay  dead  on  the  field  of  battle :  the  whole  plain,  from 
Liitzen  to  the  canal,  was  strewed  with  the  wounded  and  the 
dying ;  the  bodies  of  knights  and  nobles  were  mingled  with 
those  of  the  common  soldiers ;  and  even  an  ecclesiastic,  the 
Abbot  of  Fulda,  whose  zeal  for  his  faith  had  brought  him  to 
the  field  as  a  spectator,  paid  the  penalty  of  his  rashness  with 
his  life.  But  the  most  melancholy  feature  of  the  Swedish  tri- 
umph was  the  loss  of  him  who  had  died  to  achieve  it.  For  a 
long  time  the  body  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  lay  concealed  under 
the  heaps  of  nameless  dead,  who  had  fallen  later  in  the  day. 
At  length  it  was  discovered  near  a  large  stone  between  Liitzen 
and  the  canal,  covered  with  the  most  ghastly  wounds,  trampled 
on  by  the  horses'  hoofs,  and  stripped  of  its  clothes  and  orna- 
ments by  the  hands  of  those  wretches  who  follow  a  camp  for 
the  sake  of  plunder.  Tears  streamed  down  the  cheeks  of  the 
rough  soldiers  as  they  followed  in  melancholy  procession  the 
remains  of  him  who  had  so  often  led  them  to  victory;  and, 
when  the  bereft  widow  embraced  his  corpse  at  Weissenfels,  a 
dismal  murmur  ran  through  the  ranks,  like  the  wailing  of  chil- 
dren over  the  grave  of  a  beloved  father.  The  buff-coat  of  Gus- 
tavus, covered  with  blood,  had  been  torn  from  his  body  by  the 
plunderers,  and  found  its  way  to  Vienna,  where  it  was  exhibited 
to  the  emperor,  who  bursting  into  tears  at  the  sight,  exclaimed, 
"  Gladly  would  I  have  allowed  the  unhappy  man  a  longer  life, 
and  a  joyful  return  to  his  country,  if  his  death  had  not  been 
necessary  to  the  repose  of  Germany."  Thus  fell,  in  the  thirty- 
eighth  year  of  his  age,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  great  protector 
of  Protestantism  in  Germany.  Pappenheim  died  of  his  wounds 
at  Leipzic  the  day  after  the  battle.  He  had  first  distinguished 
himself  at  Prague,  where,  although  severely  wounded,  and  sup- 
ported only  by  a  few  soldiers,  he  had  put  to  flight  a  whole  regi- 
ment of  the  enemy.  As  a  second  in  command,  he  was  excel- 
lent ;  but  his  wild  chivalrous  courage  rendered  him  unfit  for  the 
chief  direction  of  an  army.  Tilly  always  maintained  that  the 
battle  of  Leipzic  was  lost  through  his  rashness.  Like  that  fe- 
rocious leader,  he  had  dyed  his  hands  in  blood  at  Magdeburg ; 
but  the  habits  of  his  early  life  were  studious  and  refined,  and 
foreign  travel  had  improved  his  natural  capacity.  Unfortu- 
nately, however,  the  fierceness  of  his  temper  broke  through  all 
restraints  on  the  day  of  battle.  Superstition  maintained  that 
31  V 


242 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


this  warlike  character  was  stamped  by  nature  on  his  brow ;  and 
it  is  certain  that  whenever  violent  passion  caused  the  blood  to 
rush  into  his  face,  two  red  lines  appeared  on  his  forehead,  giv- 
ing a  strangely  savage  expression  to  the  whole  countenance.  A 
messenger  was  on  the  way  from  Madrid  to  bring  him  the  order 
of  the  Golden  Fleece,  when  death  rendered  all  worldly  dis- 
tinctions valueless. 


DEATH  OP  WALLENSTEIN. 


243 


DEATH  OF   WALLENSTEIN. 

HE  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  would 
have  been  fatal  to  the 
Protestant  cause,  had  not 
the  Swedish  Chancellor 
Oxenstierna  and  duke 
Bernard  of  Saxe  Weimar 
v^p^  exerted  themselves  to  re- 
pair the  loss  by  assem- 
,^-ifP?"^  -  bling  the  German  princes 

and  representatives  of  cities  at  Heilbronn,  where  Oxenstierna 
was  named  head  of  the  alliance  in  the  room  of  his  deceased 
master.  The  command  of  the  army  was  divided  between  duke 
Bernard  and  General  Horn  ;  but  the  Swedes  had  lost  much  of 
that  discipline  which  had  rendered  their  character  so  estimable 
in  Germany  during  the  lifetime  of  Gustavus,  and  now  committed 
acts  of  plunder  and  violence  with  as  little  scruple  as  the  Impe- 
rialists. Some  advantages  were  obtained  by  Bernard  and  his 
colleague ;  but  the  unfortunate  city  of  Leipzic,  having  surren- 
dered for  the  third  time  to  the  Imperialists,  was  sacked  and 
pillaged  by  Wallenstein's  general,  Hoik.  The  plague,  which 
was  raging  at  Leipsic,  soon  afterwards  attacked  the  conqueror : 
and  as  he  lay  on  his  sick-bed,  without  hope  of  recovery,  the 
stings  of  conscience  became  so  insupportable  that  he  offered  six 


244  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

hundred  dollars  to  any  one  who  would  bring  him  a  Lutheran 
minister.  But  all  had  either  been  murdered  by  his  own  order, 
or  had  concealed  themselves  so  closely  that  the  attempts  of 
his  officers  to  discover  them  were  utterly  fruitless. 

While  the  Swedes  were  overrunning  Germany,  Wallenstein 
remained  inactive  with  his  army  in  Bohemia,  until  the  desertion 
of  some  mercenary  troops  suggested  to  him  the  expediency  of 
ascertaining  exactly  the  temper  of  his  men,  by  tendering  his 
resignation  to  the  emperor.  The  experiment  succeeded.  Most 
of  the  German  troops  remained  faithful  to  their  commander ; 
and  the  principal  officers,  being  invited  to  a  banquet,  signed  a 
paper,  in  which  they  pledged  themselves  to  support  the  duke 
of  Friedland  against  any  who  should  seek  to  disturb  him  in  his 
command.  It  was  afterwards  pretended  that  the  signature  of 
these  officers  had  been  obtained  by  fraud,  inasmuch  as  a  paper 
containing  the  words  "saving  our  duty  to  the  emperor,"  which 
lay  on  the  table  at  the  beginning  of  the  banquet,  had  been  with- 
drawn when  the  guests  were  too  drunk  to  detect  the  manoeuvre, 
and  another  substituted,  which  pledged  them  simply  and  un- 
conditionally to  the  support  of  their  general.  But  this  story, 
although  univerally  believed  in  the  days  of  Schiller,  has  been 
pronounced  by  modern  historians  to  be  an  invention  of  Wallen- 
stein's  enemies,  who  hoped  in  some  measure  to  justify  their  deed 
of  blood,  by  representing  the  murdered  man  as  a  dishonoured 
traitor. 

These  proceedings  of  the  duke  of  Friedland  having  been  be- 
trayed to  the  emperor  by  Ottavio  Piccoluomini,  an  officer  who 
had  insinuated  himself  into  the  general's  confidence  by  false 
professions  of  friendship,  an  order  for  superseding  Wallenstein 
in  his  command  was  forwarded  from  the  Imperial  court  to  Gen- 
eral Gallas,  who  took  care  to  communicate  it  to  none  but  the 
foreign  mercenary  officers.  Wallenstein,  aware  of  this  treachery, 
despatched  messenger  after  messenger,  with  overtures  of  sub- 
mission ;  but  the  vigilance  of  his  enemies  prevented  their  ever 
reaching  Vienna :  and  the  duke  at  length,  hopeless  of  pardon, 
and  abandoned  by  many  of  his  officers,  threw  himself  into  Eger, 
(a  strong  fortress  on  the  western  frontier  of  Bohemia,)  and  now 
for  the  first  time  entered,  it  is  said,  into  negotiations  with  the 
Swedes.  But  Bernard  of  Weimar,  doubtful  of  his  sincerity, 
received  these  advances  coldly.     "  One  who  did  not  believe  in 


DEATH  OF  WALLENSTEIN.  245 

God,"  he  said,  "ought  not  to  be  trusted  by  men."  Perhaps 
Wallenstein  might  eventually  have  succeeded  in  removing  this 
unfavourable  impression :  but  his  hours  were  now  numbered. 
On  the  25th  of  February,  1633,  Gordon,  a  Scotch  soldier  of 
fortune  who  commanded  the  garrison,  and  two  mercenary  offi- 
cers named  Butler  and  Leslie,  the  one  Irish,  the  other  Scotch, 
met  at  midnight  in  the  citadel  of  Eger,  and  swore  on  the  crosses 
of  their  swords,  that  they  would  put  to  death  the  duke  of  Fried- 
land,  Illo,  Terzky,  Kinski,  and  an  officer  of  inferior  rank  named 
Neumann,  all  of  whom  were  invited  to  an  entertainment  at  the 
citadel  on  the  following  evening.  This  dark  plot  was  communi- 
cated to  three  other  Irishmen  and  two  Italians ;  and  an  arrange- 
ment made  that  Geraldino,  one  of  the  Italians,  and  another  offi- 
cer named  Deveroux,  should  conceal  themselves  with  thirty  men 
in  a  room  adjoining  the  banqueting  hall,  whence  they  were  to 
rush  out  at  a  given  signal,  and  aid  the  other  conspirators  in 
their  bloody  work.  At  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  the  26th, 
all  the  doomed  men,  with  the  exception  of  Wallenstein,  who  ex- 
cused himself  on  the  plea  of  severe  indisposition,  entered  the 
citadel  of  Eger,  where  they  were  received  with  affected  cor- 
diality by  Gordon  and  his  fellow  conspirators :  but  no  sooner 
had  the  last  of  them  crossed  the  moat,  than  the  drawbridge  was 
raised,  and  the  keys  of  the  fortress  placed  in  the  hands  of  Leslie. 
Then  followed  one  of  those  scenes  with  which  the  wild  mercena- 
ries of  that  day  were  but  too  familiar.  Whilst  the  wine-cup 
passed  from  hand  to  hand,  and  the  unsuspecting  guests  were 
drinking  deeply  to  the  health  of  their  treacherous  entertainers, 
a  side  door  was  suddenly  thrown  open,  and  Geraldino,  at  the 
head  of  six  dragoons,  armed  with  pikes  and  sabres,  rushed 
towards  the  table,  shouting  in  Italian,  "Viva  la  casa  d'Austria !" 
"  Long  live  the  house  of  Austria  !"  whilst  from  the  opposite  side 
a  loud  cry  was  heard,  "Who  is  on  the  emperor's  side,  who?" 
and  Deveroux  with  four-and-twenty  soldiers  marched  into  the 
hall.  Gordon  and  Leslie  then  extinguished  the  lights,  and  the 
assassins  falling  on  Kinski  and  Illo,  despatched  them  before 
they  could  snatch  their  sabres  from  the  wall :  but  Terzky,  who 
had  possessed  himself  of  his  sword  during  the  first  confusion, 
fought  so  desperately  that  two  of  the  assailants  were  stretched 
dead  at  his  feet,  and  many  more  wounded,  before  the  assassins 
could  effect  their  purpose.     Neumann  had  rushed  out  at  the 

v2 


246  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

first  appearance  of  danger,  but  being  unacquainted  with  the  con- 
spirators' pass-word,  was  soon  detected  and  put  to  death  by  the 
soldiers.  The  conspirators  then  proceeded  to  Wallenstein's 
quarters  at  the  burgomaster's  house,  where  they  were  admitted 
by  the  guard,  in  the  belief  that  they  were  the  bearers  of  some 
important  communication  to  their  general.  As 'they  ascended 
the  staircase,  one  of  the  servants  implored  them  not  to  disturb 
his  lord,  who,  worn  out  by  long  watching  and  the  pain  of  an 
imperfectly  healed  wound,  had  just  fallen  into  an  uneasy  slum- 
ber. "This  is  the  time  for  disturbance,"  shouted  Deverouxin  a 
voice  of  thunder  ;  and  striking  the  servant  down,  he  passed  on 
to  the  chamber  of  Wallenstein,  and  bursting  open  the  door  found 
himself  in  presence  of  his  victim,  who  had  risen  from  bed  at  the 
first  alarm,  and  advanced  to  meet  the  intruders.  "  Art  thou 
not,"  exclaimed  the  assassin,  "the  villain  who  would  carry  over 
our  army  to  the  Swedes,  and  pluck  the  crown  from  our  emperor's 
head?"  Wallenstein  stretched  out  his  arms  without  uttering  a 
word,  and  Deveroux  plunged  a  halberd  into  his  breast.  The 
body  of  the  murdered  man  was  then  wrapped  in  a  piece  of 
tapestry,  and  conveyed  to  the  citadel,  whence  it  was  afterwards 
removed  to  the  duke's  burial-place  at  Gitschin.  Bernard  of 
Weimar  arrived  soon  afterwards  and  found  Eger  in  possession  of 
the  Imperialists.  The  assassins  Butler  and  Leslie  were  raised 
by  the  emperor  to  the  rank  of  count,  as  having  done  good  service 
to  his  cause.  The  landed  possessions  of  Wallenstein  were  di- 
vided among  his  murderers  ;  and  what  little  remained  of  his  per- 
sonal property  (for  his  false  friend  Piccoluomini  had  appropriated 
the  greater  part  to  himself  immediately  after  the  duke's  death) 
was  distributed  among  the  soldiers.  As  soon  as  the  emperor 
received  intelligence  that  his  powerful  general  had  ceased  to 
live,  he  drew  up  and  published  a  proclamation,  in  which  an 
attempt  was  made  to  justify  the  murder.  The  character  of 
Wallenstein  was  painted  in  the  blackest  colours :  and  acts  which 
were  afterwards  proved  by  authentic  documents  to  have  been 
done  with  the  consent  and  even  at  the  suggestion  of  the  empe- 
ror himself,  were  brought  forward  as  proofs  of  his  guilt.  The 
whole  of  Wallenstein's  army,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  regi- 
ments, which  went  over  to  the  Swedes  or  Saxons,  remained 
faithful  to  the  emperor,  whose  eldest  son  Ferdinand  was  ap- 
pointed general-in-chief,  and  Gallas  second  in  command. 


END   OF   THE   THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR. 


247 


BERNARD  OF  SAXE  WEIMAR. 


DEATH  OF  FERDINAND  II.  AND  BERNARD 
OF  SAXE  WEIMAR— END  OF  THE  THIRTY 
YEARS'  WAR. 


AD  Bernard  of  Saxe  Weimar  been  able  to 
avail  himself  of  the  first  moments  of  con- 
fusion consequent  on  the  death  of  Wallen- 
stein,  he  might  have  found  means  to  dis- 
perse the  Imperial  troops,  which  were  in 
disorder  for  want  of  a  leader.  But  the 
Swedes,  jealous  of  the  confidence  reposed  by  Bernard  in  his 
German  soldiers,  refused  to  co-operate  with  him  until  it  was  too 
late.  The  consequence  of  this  indecision  was  the  loss  of  Ratis- 
bon,  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Imperialists  before  it  could 
be  relieved.     This  calamity  was  soon  followed  by  a  bloody  de- 


248  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

feat  at  Nb'rdlingen,  where  the  Protestants  lost  16,000  men.  In 
Swabia,  the  citizens  of  Augsburg,  after  subsisting  for  some  time 
on  the  dead  bodies  of  men  and  all  sorts  of  garbage,  were  com- 
pelled to  purchase  their  lives  at  the  expense  of  all  their  pro- 
perty and  to  embrace  the  Romish  religion.  These  disasters 
had  the  effect  which  might  have  been  anticipated  on  the  waver- 
ing counsels  of  the  elector  of  Saxony,  who,  in  the  expectation 
that  the  emperor's  cause  would  soon  be  triumphant,  hastened  to 
conclude  a  peace  on  the  best  terms  that  he  could  obtain.  The 
electors  of  Brandenburg  and  Luneburg  followed  his  example ; 
and  a  convention  was  signed  at  Prague,  in  which  these  princes 
pledged  themselves,  as  the  price  of  their  restoration  to  the  em- 
peror's favour,  to  surrender  to  his  tender  mercies  all  their  Pro- 
testant brethren  in  western  and  southern  Germany.  Mean- 
while the  emperor  was  not  idle.  Preparations  were  made  on  a 
large  scale  for  continuing  the  war ;  and  the  dukedom  of  Fran- 
conia  promised  to  Bernard  of  Saxe  Weimar,  on  condition  of  his 
joining  the  Imperialists.  Bernard  saw  that  utter  ruin  to  the 
Protestant  cause  would  be  the  certain  consequence  of  his  aban- 
doning it ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  introduction  of  the 
French  into  Germany,  which  seemed  the  only  resource  left  to 
the  allies,  was  a  measure  full  of  danger  to  the  liberties  of  his 
country.  After  a  severe  struggle,  religious  zeal  prevailed  over 
patriotism,  and  he  refused  the  emperor's  offer.  In  the  year 
1636,  Bernard  visited  Paris,  where  he  was  honourably  received 
by  Louis  XIII.,  and  promises  made  to  him  in  abundance,  which 
were  never  fulfilled ;  for  the  French,  notwithstanding  the  inte- 
rest which  they  affected  to  take  in  the  affairs  of  the  German 
Protestants,  were  in  reality  only  desirous  that  the  two  parties 
should  wear  each  other  out  in  a  long  struggle,  when  it  would 
be  easy  for  a  French  army  to  enter  Germany  and  satisfy  their 
ambitious  cravings.  Bernard  returned  to  his  camp,  and  soon 
afterwards,  during  the  bombardment  of  Zabern,  narrowly 
escaped  death  from  a  ball,  which  shattered  his  bed  to  atoms. 
A  remarkable  change  had  taken  place  in  his  character.  For- 
merly he  had  allowed  his  soldiers  the  most  unlimited  license ; 
but,  during  his  residence  at  Paris,  the  queen,  Anne  of  Austria, 
having  implored  him  for  her  sake  to  have  mercy  on  the  weaker 
sex,  Bernard  promised  faithfully  to  obey  her  commands,  and  so 
strictly  kept  his  word,  that  the  nuns  of  Remberville,  surprised 


END   OF   THE    THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR.  249 

and  delighted  at  a  forbearance  so  uncommon  in  those  days, 
overwhelmed  him  with  expressions  of  gratitude,  and  presented 
him  with  a  sword-belt  of  exquisite  workmanship.  While  the 
war  was  proceeding  thus  languidly,  an  episode  was  enacted 
worthy  the  brightest  days  of  chivalry.  The  Infant  of  Spain 
and  Piccoluomini  having  invaded  France,  Richelieu  had  sent  a 
force  to  repulse  them.  While  the  two  enemies  lay  in  their 
encampments  at  Liege,  General  von  Werth  determined  on  his 
own  responsibility  to  lead  the  cavalry  of  Piccoluomini  to  the 
very  gates  of  Paris.  Desperate  as  the  attempt  seemed,  it  was 
fully  successful.  The  French  troops  fled  before  him,  cities 
opened  their  gates,  and  the  magistrates  on  bendpd  knees  pre- 
sented their  keys  to  the  invader.  Paris  was  panic-struck ;  and 
Werth  might  easily  have  made  himself  master  of  the  place  had 
not  his  troopers  wasted  time  in  plundering  the  surrounding 
country.  This  delay  enabled  Cardinal  Richelieu  to  arm  and 
send  against  the  enemy  all  the  disposable  troops ;  but  it  was 
not  until  the  autumnal  rains  brought  sickness  into  his  camp  that 
the  chivalrous  invader  abandoned  his  design,  and  rejoined  the 
Imperial  army.  In  the  year  1637,  the  aged  emperor  died. 
Almost  the  last  act  of  a  life  which  had  been  one  long  display 
of  ferocious  cruelty,  was  to  order  the  drowning  of  some  insur- 
gents in  Carinthia,  and  the  infliction  of  horrible  tortures  on 
the  peasants  of  Upper  Austria.  Few  sovereigns  have  left  be- 
hind them  a  more  odious  name.  Under  the  cloak  of  religious 
zeal,  he  sent  fire  and  sword  through  his  native  land  ;  and  that 
not  so  much  from  an  honest  conviction  that  the  tenets  of  the 
Romish  faith  were  true,  as  from  an  anxious  desire  to  establish, 
at  whatever  cost  of  human  suffering,  the  detestable  principle 
"  cujus  regio,  ejus  religio,"  which  both  Romanist  and  Protestant 
sovereigns  had  been  too  ready  to  assert  from  time  to  time  since 
the  days  of  Luther.  Heretics  were  therefore  to  be  extermi- 
nated, not  because  their  doctrines  were  damnable,  but  because 
those  who  presumed  to  differ  from  their  sovereign  were  in  his 
eyes  guilty  of  rebellion.  More  than  ten  millions  of  human  be- 
ings were  sacrificed  to  this  unjust  and  cruel  policy.  The  Jesuits 
had  impressed  upon  him  the  devilish  maxim,  that  a  land  had 
better  lie  waste  than  harbour  heretics  and  rebels  ;  and  on  this 
principle  he  had  acted  through  life,  and  reduced  the  fair  plains 
and  fields  of  Germany  to  the  condition  of  a  howling  wilderness,. 
32 


250  INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 

through  which  dissolute  soldiers  and  half-starved  miserable  pea- 
sants, in  whose  breasts  famine  and  suffering  had  extinguished 
the  feelings  of  humanity,  wandered  like  fiends,  ready  to  devour 
alike  friends  and  foes.  The  year  in  which  the  emperor  died  a 
frightful  famine  was  added  to  the  other  horrors  of  war.  So 
ghastly  was  this  visitation,  that  men,  to  save  their  lives,  disin- 
terred and  devoured  the  bodies  of  their  fellow-creatures,  and 
even  hunted  down  human  beings  that  they  might  feed  on  their 
flesh.  The  effect  of  this  unnatural  and  loathsome  diet  was  a 
pestilence,  Avhich  swept  away  the  soldiery  as  well  as  the  people 
by  thousands.  In  Pomerania,  hundreds  destroyed  themselves, 
as  unable  to  endure  the  pangs  of  hunger.  On  the  island  of 
Rligen  many  poor  creatures  were  found  dead  with  their  mouths 
full  of  grass,  and  in  some  districts  attempts  were  made  to  knead 
earth  into  bread.  Throughout  Germany,  the  license  of  war  and 
the  misery  consequent  on  famine  and  pestilence  had  so  utterly 
destroyed  the  morality  which  was  once  the  pride  and  boast  of 
this  land,  that  the  people,  a  few  years  before  the  most  simple 
and  kind-hearted  in  Europe,  now  vied  with  the  foreign  merce- 
naries who  infested  their  country  in  setting  at  naught  the  laws 
of  God  as  w^ll  as  of  man.  »  Germany,"  says  Betkius,  in  his 
"  Excidium  Germanise,"  "lieth  in  the  dust.  Shame  is  her 
portion,  and  poverty  and  sickness  of  heart.  The  curse  of  God 
is  on  her,  because  of  her  cruelties,  and  blasphemies,  and  blood- 
shed. Ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  souls,  the  spirits  of 
innocent  children  butchered  in  this  unholy  war,  cry  day  and 
night  unto  God  for  vengeance,  and  cease  not :  while  those  who 
have  caused  all  these  miseries  live  in  peace  and  freedom  ;  and 
the  shouts  of  revelry  and  the  voice  of  music  are  heard  in  their 
dwellings."  Ferdinand  was  succeeded  on  the  imperial  throne 
by  his  son  Ferdinand  III.  Towards  the  end  of  this  year, 
(1637,)  Bernard  of  Saxe  Weimar  a  second  time  visited  Paris, 
and,  being  supported  by  the  confidential  agent  of  Oxenstierna, 
(the  renowned  Hugo  Grotius,  then  an  exile  from  Holland,) 
succeeded  in  obtaining  from  the  French  government  a  sum  of 
money  sufficient  to  pacify  his  starving  soldiery,  who  were  com- 
mitting horrible  ravages  in  Champagne.  In  the  following 
year,  the  Protestants  made  themselves  masters  of  the  strong 
fortress  of  Breisach,  during  the  siege  of  which  Bernard,  al- 
though lying  sick  of  a  fever,  sprang  from  his  bed,  and,  mount- 


END   OF   THE    THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR.  251 

ing  his  charger,  put  to  flight  a  body  of  the  enemy  who  were 
coming  to  the  relief  of  the  place.  Bernard's  last  hour  was 
now  approaching  ;  and  he  seems  to  have  had  a  melancholy  fore- 
boding of  his  death.  "  I  am  weary  of  my  life,"  said  he,  after 
his  soldiers,  contrary  to  his  express  commands,  had  plundered 
a  town  which  had  fallen  into  his  hands,  "  for  I  can  no  longer 
continue  with  a  safe  conscience  amidst  such  lawless  proceedings." 
And,  when  the  people  thronged  to  pay  homage  to  him  on  the 
road,  he  exclaimed,  « I  fear  it  will  be  with  me  as  it  was  with 
the  king  of  Sweden — as  soon  as  the  people  honoured  him  more 
than  God,  he  died."  A  few  days  later  he  was  seized  with  an 
incurable  illness,  which  he  himself  believed  to  be  the  effect  of 
poison.  They  brought  him  by  easy  stages  to  Neuburg,  where 
he  died  on  the  8th  July,  1639.  »  Germany,"  writes  Grotius, 
"  lost  in  him  her  ornament  and  her  last  hope ;  in  a  word,  al- 
most the  only  man  who  was  worthy  the  name  of  a  German 
prince."  Rumour  almost  universally  attributed  his  death  to 
the  French  ;  although  there  were  not  wanting  some  who  accused 
the  emperor  of  having  poisoned  him,  and  a  few  who  believed 
that  he  died  of  fever.  Thus  was  the  Protestant  cause  a  second 
time  deprived  of  its  head.  Like  his  great  master  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  Bernard  died  in  the  flower  of  his  age,  and  was  fol- 
lowed like  him  to  the  grave  by  the  lamentations  of  those  whom 
he  had  so  often  led  to  victory.  In  person,  he  was  well  formed, 
with  long  hair  flowing  over  his  shoulders  in  a  manner  which 
would  have  given  him  an  appearance  of  effeminacy,  but  for  the 
expression  of  his  marked  and  sun-burnt  features.  Religion  and 
war  were  the  occupations  of  his  life.  Every  day  he  devoted 
several  hours  to  the  study  of  the  Bible,  which  he  knew  almost 
by  heart.  Only  two  regiments  of  his  army  wore  uniforms  ;  the 
rest  were  dressed  in  such  clothes  as  they  could  obtain,  and  pre- 
sented a  wild  and  motley  appearance.  On  their  standard  they 
bore  the  inscription  "Perque  enses  perque  ignes,"  (through 
sword  and  fire  ;)  or,  "  Fortiter  agere  et  pati  Bernardinum  est," 
(to  do  and  to  suffer  bravely  is  the  part  of  Bernard's  followers.) 
They  carried  their  swords  always  naked,  having  no  sheath  for 
them,  as  we  are  told,  but  the  bodies  of  their  enemies.  After 
Bernard's  death,  the  war  was  carried  on  for  nine  years  longer, 
during  which  Generals  Banner,  Torstenson,  and  Wrangel  suc- 
ceeded one  another  in  command  of  the  Protestant  army ;  and  the 


252  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

Imperial  general  Gallas  was  replaced  by  a  renegade  Calvinist 
named  Melander  von  Holzapfel.  The  last  event  of  this  long 
and  disastrous  war  was  the  taking  of  Prague  by  the  Swedish 
general  Konigsmark.  On  the  24th  of  October,  1648,  articles 
of  peace  were  signed  at  Munster  and  Osnabrlick  in  Westphalia. 
The  emperor  agreed  to  pay  the  Swedes  five  millions  of  dollars 
as  an  indemnification  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  and  to  deliver 
up  to  them  the  bishoprics  of  Bremen  and  Verden,  the  island 
of  Riigen,  and  the  greater  part  of  Pomerania.  The  French 
were  to  continue  in  possession  of  Metz,  Toul,  and  Verdun,  and  the 
whole  of  Alsace,  except  Strasburg,  instead  of  which  they  were  to 
occupy  Breisach,  and  the  fortress  of  Philipsburg,  the  keys  of  Up- 
per Germany.  Peace  was  at  the  same  time  concluded  between 
Spain  and  Holland,  and  the  independence  of  the  United  Provinces 
fully  recognised.  Romanists  and  Protestants  were  now  placed 
in  all  respects  on  an  equal  footing.  All  ecclesiastical  property 
which  had  been  appropriated  by  Protestants  was  to  remain  in 
their  hands.  The  emperor  conceded  this  point,  partly  because 
it  would  have  been  hopeless  to  oppose  it,  and  partly  because  he 
began  himself  to  be  aware  of  the  advantages  to  be  gained  by 
robbing  the  church  of  her  possessions.  The  Lutherans  and 
Calvinists  had  now  the  good  sense  to  lay  aside  their  disputes, 
and  to  obtain  the  abrogation  of  that  foolish  and  wicked  law 
which  would  compel  every  subject  to  follow  the  religion  of  his 
sovereign.  Thus  terminated  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  during 
which  the  best  and  bravest  of  the  land  had  fallen  victims  to  the 
ambition  of  their  own  princes,  or  died  in  fighting  against  the 
oppressors  of  their  country.  Like  one  who  has  been  snatched 
from  the  deadly  fangs  of  a  serpent,  Germany  lay  rescued  in- 
deed, but  torn  and  exhausted ;  while  the  blood  which  should 
have  circulated  cheerily  through  her  veins,  communicating  nou- 
rishment and  health,  had  either  been  drained  in  the  conflict,  or 
crept  through  her  system,  mingled  with  a  poison  which  was 
corrupting  her  juices,  and  threatening  eventually  to  deprive 
her  of  existence. 


ACCESSION   OF  LOUIS   XIII.   OF   FRANCE. 


253 


LOUIS    XIII. 


ACCESSION  OF  LOUIS  XIII.  OF  FRANCE. 


HE  young  king  of  France,  Louis 
XIIL,  son  of  Henry  IV.,  who 
succeeded  to  the  throne  on  the 
horrid  event  of  his  father's  assas- 
sination, was  not  yet  nine  years 
old.  The  parliament,  as  we  have 
already  said,  immediately  con- 
ferred the  regency  on  his  mother, 
Mary  of  Medicis,  a  woman  not 
less  bigoted  in  her  devotion  to 
Rome  than  the  former  queen-mother  of  that  family.  The  cha- 
racter of  Mary,  however,  is  wholly  unstained  with  the  imputa- 
tion of  any  such  bloody  crimes  as  those  for  which  Catherine  is 
universally  execrated.  She  was  entirely  under  the  influence 
of  two  Florentine  adventurers,  a  man  of  the  name  of  Concini, 
whom  she  made  Marechal  d'Ancre,  and  his  wife  Leonora  de 
Galigai.  The  rapid  and  extraordinary  elevation  of  these  fa- 
vourites excited  almost  universal  discontent.  It  is  said  of  Con- 
cini, that  to  repress  the  murmurs  of  the  people,  by  showing 

W 


254  INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 

them  what  fate  they  might  expect  if  they  dared  to  censure 
him,  he  had  several  gibbets  erected  in  different  parts  of  Paris. 
Such  means  as  this  of  stifling  the  expression  of  public  feeling 
are  seldom  for  the  safety  of  those  who  adopt  them. 

On  the  3d  of  October,  1611,  died  the  due  de  Mayenne.  His 
death  at  this  time  was  accounted  a  great  loss  to  France.  He 
was  a  man  of  integrity,  and  from  the  time  of  his  reconciliation 
to  Henry  IV.  had  never  embarked  in  any  intrigues  of  state ; 
and  it  has  been  thought,  that,  if  he  had  lived,  he  might  have 
been  able  to  check  the  civil  dissensions  which  ensued.  These 
dissensions  were  greatly  owing  to  the  ambitious  desire  of  some 
of  the  princes  of  the  blood,  and  others  of  the  great  nobility, 
to  take  advantage  of  the  distractions  of  a  new  reign,  and  of  a 
feeble  minority,  to  establish  their  own  power  and  independence. 
The  due  de  Mayenne,  on  his  death-bed,  charged  his  son  to  re- 
main firm  in  his  principles  of  religion  and  loyalty,  and  only  on 
that  condition  gave  him  his  blessing. 

One  of  the  first  objects  of  Mary  of  Medicis,  and  her  favour- 
ites, was  to  unite  themselves  as  closely  as  possible  with  the 
court  of  Spain.  In  the  year  1612  were  announced  two  intended 
marriages,  the  one  between  the  young  king  Louis  XIII.  and 
the  infanta,  Anne  of  Austria,  daughter  of  the  king  of  Spain  ; 
and  the  other,  between  the  princess  Elizabeth,  the  king's  sister, 
and  the  prince  of  Spain,  afterwards  Philip  IV.  These  mar- 
riages took  place  by  proxy,  the  one  at  Burgos  in  Spain,  and 
the  other  at  Bordeaux,  on  the  same  day,  Oct.  18,  1615,  and 
the  two  princesses  were  exchanged  in  the  isle  of  Pheasants,  in 
the  river  Bidassoa,  in  the  November  following.  The  infanta 
was  then  conducted  to  Bordeaux,  and  the  king  meeting  her  on 
the  way,  they  made  together  a  solemn  entry  into  that  city. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  prince  of  Conde*  (Henry  II.)  and 
other  princes  and  nobles  joined  with  the  Protestants  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  queen.  A  war  broke  out,  and  the  Swiss  Protes- 
tants in  the  king's  pay  quitted  the  service,  and  returned  home, 
because  they  would  not  act  against  their  brethren  of  the  same 
religion.  These  troubles  were  for  a  time  composed  in  1617,  by 
the  entire  downfall  of  the  queen  and  her  party.  A  courtier 
of  the  name  of  De  Luynes  excited  in  the  mind  of  the  king,  who 
was  now  about  sixteen  years  of  age,  a  jealousy  of  his  mother 
and  of  her  favourites,  and  proposed  to  him,  that  Vitry,  a  cap- 


mm'  irwfc.nijiiiif 


ASSASSINATION    OF    MARECHAL    D'ANORE. 


ACCESSION   OF   LOUIS   XIII.  OF   FRANCE.  257 

tain  of  the  guards,  should  have  the  royal  authority  to  arrest 
Marshal  d'Ancre.  The  king  agreed,  and  Vitry,  at  the  head 
of  a  body  of  ruffians,  who,  it  may  be  suspected,  were  marked 
out  for  this  employment,  because  something  more  than  a  mere 
arrest  was  intended,  took  an  opportunity  of  arresting  his  vic- 
tim on  the  bridge  of  the  Louvre,  and,  on  the  mare'dial's  putting 
his  hand  to  his  sword,  had  him  instantly  killed  by  his  followers. 
The  king,  on  being  informed  of  this  transaction  by  Vitry  him- 
self, exclaimed,  "  Grand  merci  a  vous !  si  cette  heure  je  suis 
roi ;"  and  made  him  immediately  mare'chal  of  France.  The 
body  of  Concini,  which  had  been  carried  off,  and  buried  imme- 
diately after  his  death,  was  that  very  evening  taken  out  of  its 
grave  by  a  mob  of  footmen  and  "pages."  It  was  then  dragged 
through  the  streets,  and  afterwards  cut  in  pieces,  some  of 
which  were  hung  on  the  gibbets  which  he  had  himself  erected 
in  order  to  frighten  his  enemies.  His  wife  Leonora  was  be- 
headed by  order  of  the  parliament.  She  was  interrogated  dur- 
ing her  trial,  what  sorcery  she  had  used  to  acquire  her  great 
ascendency  over  the  mind  of  the  queen.  "I  have  used  none," 
she  answered,  »  except  that  ascendency  which  strong  minds 
have  over  the  weak."  The  queen-mother  herself  was  exiled  to 
Blois,  from  whence  she  made  her  escape  to  Angouleme.  Soon 
after  she  had  an  interview  with  Louis  at  Tours,  and  came  to  a 
sort  of  accommodation  with  him.  The  reconciliation,  however, 
did  not  last  long,  and  she  was  at  one  time  at  actual  war  with 
her  son.  To  conclude  at  once  all  we  need  say  of  her  history, 
we  may  here  add,  that  she  was  again  reconciled  to  him ;  but 
that  a  final  breach  ensued  in  1630.  She  fled  to  Bruxelles  in 
1631,  and,  after  many  sufferings  from  neglect  and  vexation, 
died  at  Cologne,  July  3, 1642. 


w2 


258 


INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


EICHELIEC. 


EISE  OF  CARDINAL  RICHELIEU. 


N  the  king's  approach  to  maturity,  strong 
hopes  were  for  a  time  entertained  that  he 
would  show  some  portion  of  his  father's 
energy  of  character.  But  though  personally 
brave,  and,  like  many  weak  men,  often  ready 
to  authorize  very  decisive  and  violent  mea- 
sures, he  possessed  no  power  of  self-govern- 
ment and  control,  and  was  always,  through 
his  whole  life,  a  mere  puppet  played  on  by  the  hands  of  others. 
M.  de  Luynes  first  assumed  over  the  young  monarch  the  do- 
minion which  the  Concinis  had  exercised  over  the  queen.  De 
Luynes  was  a  man  of  a  proud  and  grasping  temper,  but  wholly 
unequal  to  restrain  the  ambition  of  the  princes  of  the  blood, 
and  other  nobles,  who  indulged  themselves  with  impunity  in 
all  sorts  of  disorders,  and  even  sometimes  committed  hostilities 
against  the  crown.  De  Luynes  died  Dec.  15,  1621.  It  has 
been  observed  of  the  court  of  France  at  this  period,  that  not 
any  one  person  of  eminence  was  to  be  found  in  it,  who  could 
properly  be  entitled  a  man  of  honour  or  worth.  Pride  and 
baseness,  qualities  very  often  united,  appeared  to  be  almost  the 


RISE   OF   CARDINAL   RICHELIEU.  259 

universal  characteristic,  and  the  only  ability  which  was  either 
possessed  or  valued  was  the  ability  to  corrupt  and  betray. 

At  the  death  of  De  Luynes,  the  celebrated  Armand  du  Plessis 
Richelieu,  bishop  of  Luc,on,  and  soon  afterwards  created  cardi- 
nal, was  rising  rapidly  into  distinction.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
abilities,  and  of  consummate  intrigue  and  artifice.  He  had  been 
first  brought  forward  by  the  unfortunate  Concini,  and  afterwards 
attached  himself  to  the  new  favourite  De  Luynes.  He  was  for 
some  time  about  the  person  of  the  queen-mother,  over  whom  he 
had  great  influence.  He  is  said  to  have  perfidiously  abandoned 
her  interests,  as  soon  as  he  saw  that  he  could  advance  his  own 
by  forsaking  her.  At  all  events,  he  acquired  a  greater  degree 
of  power  than  any  minister  had  before  possessed  in  France,  and 
from  the  date  of  his  admission  into  the  royal  council  in  1624, 
to  his  death,  is  to  be  accounted  the  sole  efficient  ruler  of 
France.  He  reminds  us  in  some  respects  of  Cardinal  Wolsey, 
but  was  incomparably  more  crafty  and  artful.  He  accumulated 
in  his  own  hands  a  great  number  of  church  benefices,  but  gave 
his  whole  attention  to  affairs  of  state.  He  was  fond,  to  an  ex- 
treme, of  display  and  magnificence,  and  even  assumed  the  dress 
and  arms  of  a  soldier,  and  the  personal  direction  of  military 
affairs.  The  cardinal  de  la  Valette,  archbishop  of  Toulouse, 
followed  in  this  respect  the  example  of  Richelieu.  He  com- 
manded some  troops  in  Italy,  and  died  with  arms  in  his  hands. 

Cardinal  Richelieu  is  generally  spoken  of  with  applause  and 
respect  by  French  historians,  as  having  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  greatness  of  the  monarchy,  and  of  the  glory  which  it  ac- 
quired in  the  succeeding  reign.  He  finally  extinguished  the 
excessive  power  of  the  aristocracy,  who  have  never  since  his 
time  been  able  to  contend  with  the  crown.  He  almost  wholly 
suppressed  also  those  religious  wars  by  which  the  kingdom  had 
been  so  long  fatally  distracted.  But  this  he  did  by  depriving 
the  Huguenots  of  their  just  rights  as  subjects,  rights  which  had 
been  guarantied  to  them  by  the  most  solemn  treaties.  He  also 
depressed  that  pre-eminence  of  the  house  of  Austria,  which  the 
gallant  virtues  of  Francis  I.  and  Henry  IV.  had  in  vain  at- 
tempted to  overrule. 


260  INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


DEATH  OF  RICHELIEU  AND  LOUIS  XIII.,  AND 
ACCESSION  OF  LOUIS  XIV. 

N  the  year  1642,  the  chief  efforts  of  the 
French  in  the  Spanish  War  were  carried 
into  Rousillon,  in  order  to  aid  a  revolt 
which  the  inhabitants  of  Catalonia  had 
made  against  Spain.  Louis  himself  con- 
ducted his  army  into  that  quarter,  and 
undertook  the  siege  of  Perpignan.  Riche- 
lieu, who  was  to  have  accompanied  him,  was  compelled  by  ill- 
ness to  stop  at  Narbonne.  Louis  returned  to  Paris,  where  he 
was  again  joined  by  the  cardinal,  who,  after  lingering  some 
time,  died  Dec.  4,  1642,  leaving  many  of  his  vast  designs  in- 
complete, and  a  name  more  brilliant  than  beloved  or  honoured. 
Perpignan  had  in  the  mean  time  fallen  before  the  French 
arms,  and  the  war  was  prosecuted  with  vigour  and  success. 
But  it  was  the  fate  of  Louis  soon  to  rejoin  his  ambitious  minis- 
ter in  that  solitary  mansion  where  neither  greatness  nor  glory, 
unless  purchased  by  truly  virtuous  exertions,  is  permitted  to 
follow  the  short  career  of  human  life.  A  slow  fever  hung  on 
him,  and  he  felt  his  strength  decay. 

The  dauphin  was  at  this  time  not  five  years  old,  and  the 
king,  in  the  hope  to  secure  a  tranquil  minority,  endeavoured  to 
provide  for  the  distribution  of  his  power  in  a  manner  which 
should  attain  this  end  effectually.  He  appointed  the  queen, 
Anne  of  Austria,  sole  regent.  The  duke  of  Orleans  was  de- 
clared head  of  the  council  and  lieutenant-general  throughout 
the  kingdom ;  and  it  was  also  provided  that  all  affairs  should 
be  decided  by  a  majority  of  voices  in  council.  Both  the  queen 
and  the  duke  of  Orleans  solemnly  swore  to  adhere  inviolably 
to  this  arrangement ;  and  Louis,  to  secure  still  more  certainly 
its  fulfilment,  commanded  the  deed  enacting  it  to  be  registered 
in  parliament. 


LOUIS     XIV. 


DEATH   OF   LOUIS   XIII.  263 

This  being  done,  he  prepared  for  death  with  composure. 
Before  he  died,  he  earnestly  desired  his  physician  to  tell  him 
exactly  how  long  he  had  to  live ;  and  when  he  was  told  that  he 
could  not  live  more  than  two  or  three  hours,  he  testified  the 
greatest  satisfaction,  and  added,  "  Well,  my  God  !  I  consent 
with  all  my  heart."  He  died  May  14, 1643,  in  the  forty-second 
year  of  his  age,  and  on  the  day  on  which  he  completed  the 
thirty-third  of  his  reign. 

No  sooner  was  the  king  dead  than  his  will  was  openly  vio- 
lated. Anne  of  Austria,  having  previously  gained  over  to  her 
interests  the  duke  of  Orleans  and  the  prince  of  Conde',  assem- 
bled the  parliament  on  the  18th  of  May,  and  procured  a  formal 
arret  which  gave  her  the  choice  of  the  council,  and  invested 
her  with  all  real  authority.  She  was  herself  governed  in  all 
things  by  Cardinal  Mazarin,  a  native  of  the  little  town  of  Pis- 
cina in  the  Abruzzo  in  Italy,  whose  political  address  had  intro- 
duced him  to  Richelieu,  and  who  now  became  the  leading  minis- 
ter in  France. 

The  army  in  Flanders,  at  the  time  of  the  young  king's  acces- 
sion, was  under  the  command  of  Louis  of  Bourbon  due  d'En- 
ghien,  son  of  the  prince  of  Conde',  and  himself  afterwards  known 
in  history  by  the  name  of  «  the  great  CondeV'  On  receiving 
the  news  of  the  late  king's  death,  this  young  prince,  who  was 
only  twenty-two  years  of  age,  received  orders  not  to  risk  a  bat- 
tle. A  battle,  however,  being  necessary  for  the  relief  of  Ro- 
croi,  which  the  Spaniards  were  besieging  with  a  larger  army 
than  his  own,  he  ventured  to  disobey  these  orders,  and  on  the 
19th  of  May  fought  the  battle  of  Rocroi,  in  which  he  gained  a 
decisive  victory.  In  this  battle  he  charged  with  horse  the  Spa- 
nish infantry,  which  had  been  till  now  deemed  invincible,  and, 
after  charging  three  times,  broke  their  ranks.  The  count  of 
Fuentes,  their  commander,  perished  on  the  field.  After  this 
great  victory,  he  besieged  and  took  Thionville,  and  afterwards 
carried  the  war  into  Germany.  In  August,  1644,  he  fought 
another  battle  at  Friburg,  and  took  Philipsburg  and  Mentz,  and 
several  forts  on  the  Rhine.  At  the  end  of  the  campaign,  he 
returned  to  Paris,  leaving  the  command  of  his  army  to  Mare'- 
chal  Turenne.  Turenne  was  surprised  by  the  enemy  and  de- 
feated, May,  1645,  at  Mariendahl.  The  due  d'Enghien  in- 
stantly returned  to  the  army,  and  gained  another  great  victory 


264 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


on  the  3d  of  August,  at  Nordlingen.  One  of  the  enemy's  gene- 
rals, General  Merci,  was  among  the  slain.  His  body  was  in- 
terred near  the  field  of  battle  ;  and  on  his  tomb  was  engraved 
the  short  but  expressive  inscription  :  "  Sta,  viator,  heroem  cal- 
cas." — Stop,  traveller,  you  tread  upon  a  hero. 

Meanwhile,  in  Flanders,  the  duke  of  Orleans  reduced  Grave- 
lines,  Mardyke,  and  some  other  towns.  On  October  10,  1646, 
the  due  d'Enghien  made  the  conquest  of  the  important  fortress 
of  Dunkirk,  which  surrendered  to  him  in  sight  of  the  Spanish 
army.  The  due  d'Enghien's  father  died  December  26,  and 
from  this  time  we  are  to  call  him  prince  of  Cond'e\  In  1647, 
Mazarin,  envious  of  his  glory,  detached  him  into  Catalonia 
with  too  slender  a  force  to  allow  of  his  effecting  there  any 
thing  considerable.  But,  in  the  following  year,  the  archduke 
Leopold  having  entered  Flanders,  and  recovered  several  of  the 
places  which  had  been  reduced  in  the  preceding  campaigns,  it 
was  deemed  expedient  to  send  Conde"  to  oppose  him.  The 
prince  took  Ypres,  and  marched  to  the  relief  of  Lens,  which, 
to  his  great  mortification,  surrendered  in  his  sight.  This 
mortification,  however,  was  soon  effaced  in  the  decisive  battle 
of  Lens  which  followed,  in  which  the  enemy's  forces  were  to- 
tally destroyed  or  dispersed.  Since  the  foundation  of  the  mo- 
narchy, the  French  had  never  gained  so  many  successive  victo- 
ries, nor  displayed  so  much  conduct  or  courage. 


THE    WAR   OF   THE   FRONDE. 


265 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  FRONDE. 


HE  war  with  the  emperor  was 
terminated  this  year  by  a  peace 
signed  at  Munster  on  the  24th 
of  October,  in  which  several 
important  cessions  were  made  to 
France.  Peace  was  also  restored 
between  Spain  and  the  Dutch 
^^  provinces,  in  which  the  independ- 
ence of  these  provinces  was  at  last  acknowledged,  after  a  con- 
test which  had  lasted  fourscore  years.  Spain  was  thus  at  liberty 
to  direct  her  whole  force  against  France  ;  and  in  France  itself, 
also,  civil  dissensions  arose,  which  facilitated  the  progress  of  the 
Spanish  arms. 

The  unpopularity  of  Mazarin  was  the  chief  occasion  of  these 
dissensions.  The  distress  of  the  finances,  which  had  been  much 
increased  by  the  long  war,  drove  that  minister  to  attempt  to 
procure  money  by  many  unjust  and  impolitic  methods.  The 
parliament  of  Paris  refused  to  register  the  edicts  which  were 
issued  for  the  purpose  of  raising  supplies.  In  consequence 
of  this  refusal,  one  of  its  members  was  arrested.  On  this  the 
populace  flew  to  arms,  shut  up  the  shops,  and  barricaded  the 
streets.  Several  aifrays,  attended  with  much  bloodshed,  took 
place.  The  chancellor  was  attacked  as  he  was  going  to  the 
parliament  for  the  purpose  of  annulling  its  arrets.  He  was 
obliged  to  take  flight,  and  several  of  his  attendants  were  killed. 
His  daughter-in-law,  the  duchess  of  Sully,  who  was  in  the  car- 
riage with  him,  received  a  wound  in  her  arm.  Sanson,  the 
son  of  the  celebrated  geographer,  who  was  also  in  the  car- 
riage, was  mortally  wounded.  This  was  the  commencement 
of  the  disturbances  commonly  called  the  Fronde : — from  the 
34  X 


266  INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

French  verb  fronder,  to  censure,  or  browbeat ;  and  hence  the 
word  frondeur,  which  has  often  been  used  to  denote  a  person 
of  a  party  opposed  to  the  government. 

These  disturbances  were  aggravated  by  the  famous  Cardinal 
de  Retz,  a  man  of  very  bustling  and  perturbing  abilities,  and 
of  very  profligate  morals  and  politics,  who  having  been,  much 
against  his  will,  placed  by  his  family  in  the  church,  was  now 
eoadjuteur  to  the  archbishop  of  Paris.  He  appears  at  first  to 
have  tried  to  conciliate  the  two  parties,  for  the  purpose,  appa- 
rently, of  improving  his  interest  with  the  court ;  but  this  at- 
tempt failing,  he  set  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Fronde,  chiefly, 
it  is  supposed,  through  his  sheer  love  of  intrigue,  and  the 
vanity  of  making  himself  head  of  a  party,  and  of  exercising 
his  skill  in  artifice  and  cabal.  Nor  must  we  forget  to  mention 
the  duchess  de  Longueville,  a  lady  of  a  very  masculine  spirit, 
who  was  one  of  the  chief  promoters  of  these  dissensions.  The 
"  day  of  the  barricades"  was  the  26th  August,  1648.  On  the 
following  day  the  barricades  were  removed,  the  shops  re-opened, 
and  affairs  to  all  appearance  resumed  a  peaceable  aspect. 

The  queen,  however,  thinking  Paris  no  place  of  safety,  fled 
to  St.  Germaine  en  Laye,  accompanied  by  her  children,  by  Car- 
dinal Mazarin,  the  duke  of  Orleans,  and  the  prince  of  Conde\ 
Here  she  was  obliged  to  pledge  the  jewels  of  the  crown  to  ob- 
tain money.  The  king  himself  was  often  in  want  of  necessa- 
ries. Most  of  the  court  were  obliged  to  sleep  upon  straw,  and 
the  pages  of  the  bed-chamber  were  dismissed,  from  absolute 
inability  to  supply  them  with  food.  Henrietta  Maria  also,  the 
king's  aunt,  daughter  of  Henry  IV.  and  wife  of  Charles  I.  of 
England,  who  had  fled  for  refuge  to  her  native  country,  was 
reduced  on  this  occasion  to  the  extremest  wretchedness ;  and 
her  daughter,  afterwards  duchess  of  Orleans,  is  said  to  have 
been  compelled  to  lie  in  bed  for  want  of  means  to  procure  a  fire. 
The  court,  in  conformity  with  that  cheerful  or  perhaps  flippant 
humour  which  has  always  enabled  the  French  to  turn  misfor- 
tune into  a  subject  for  pleasantry,  consoled  itself  under  these 
vexations  by  making  a  jest  of  the  Parisians,  whose  inexpert- 
ness  in  the  military  art  furnished  a  perpetual  theme  of  ridicule. 
Songs  and  epigrams  were  for  a  time  a  great  part  of  the  contest. 
At  last  the  king's  army,  under  the  command  of  the  prince  of 
Conde,  invested  Paris,  and  several  conflicts  took  place.     Many 


ANNE  OP  AUSTRIA  SHOWING  THE  KING  TO  THE  FEONDEURB. 


THE   WAR   OF   THE   FRONDE.  269 

of  the  great  nobles  had  joined  the  Fronde  and  the  parliament; 
but  scarcely  any  one  of  them  appeared  to  be  influenced  by  any 
better  motive  than  the  desire  of  personal  aggrandizement. 
They  joined  the  Fronde  that  they  might  be  bought  over  by  the 
government,  either  by  money  or  places,  or  by  the  hand  of  some 
rich  heiress  ;  and  when  they  had  got  what  they  wanted,  were 
always  ready  to  change  again.  The  great  Conde-  was  quite  as 
unprincipled  as  the  rest. 

A  sort  of  peace  was  made  in  the  spring  of  1649,  and  in  Au- 
gust the  court  returned  to  Paris.  The  intriguing  De  Retz  for  a 
time  reconciled  himself  to  the  court,  that  he  might  so  purchase 
his  elevation  to  the  rank  of  cardinal,  which  was  soon  afterwards 
conferred  on  him.  The  prince  of  Conde'  became  discontented, 
and  incurred  the  displeasure  of  Mazarin,  and  was  imprisoned 
first  at  Vincennes,  and  afterwards  at  Havre.  In  February, 
1651,  the  prince  was  released,  and  Mazarin  sent  into  exile. 
Upon  this,  a  report  was  raised  that  the  queen  was  about  to 
follow  him  with  her  son,  and  a  new  outbreak  was  the  conse- 
quence. In  order  to  appease  the  malcontents,  it  became  neces- 
sary for  Anne  of  Austria  to  admit  some  of  the  citizens  into  her 
chamber,  to  satisfy  them  that  the  king  was  still  there.  Several 
of  the  populace  were  accordingly  admitted,  when,  drawing  the 
bed-curtains,  she  proved  that  the  alarm  created  was  unfounded, 
by  showing  them  the  young  king  fast  asleep. 

Conde'  returned  to  Paris ;  but  in  the  latter  part  of  the  same 
year  retired  into  Guienne,  of  which  province  he  was  governor, 
and  there  set  up  the  standard  of  revolt.  Mazarin  soon  after- 
wards returned  to  court  and  to  power.  The  court  was  at  this 
time  removed  to  Poitiers,  whence  it  was  obliged  afterwards  to 
retreat  before  Conde',  who  had  been  joined  by  a  great  number 
of  nobles,  and  who  was  reinforced  also  by  a  body  of  troops  from 
Spain. 

Mare'chal  Turenne,  who,  after  having  attached  himself  to  the 
Fronde,  was  now  come  over  to  the  court  party,  possessed  the 
command  of  the  royal  army.  Conde',  after  gaining  a  victory 
at  Blenau,  advanced  to  Paris  in  the  month  of  April,  1652. 
Turenne  pursued  him,  and  a  severe  action  was  fought  in  the 
suburb  of  St.  Antoine,  but  with  little  advantage  on  either  side. 
Many  tumults  and  assassinations  took  place  in  the  city,  where 
the    great    obstacle  to    the   restoration  of   the   royal   autho- 

z2 


270 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


rity  appears  to  have  been  the  extreme  dislike  entertained  for 
Mazarin.  This  dislike  the  king,  who  had  now  attained  his  ma- 
jority, found  it  altogether  beyond  his  power  to  overrule,  and 
this  obnoxious  minister  was  again  sent  into  exile  on  the  12th 
of  August,  1652.  Immediately  after  his  departure,  a  deputa- 
tion from  the  citizens  went  to  the  king,  and  entreated  him  to 
return  to  his  capital.  This  accordingly  he  did,  and  tranquillity 
was  restored.  The  duke  of  Orleans,  who  in  this  last  contest 
had  taken  part  with  the  prince  of  Conde-,  was  banished  to  Blois, 
where  he  passed  the  rest  of  his  life.  Cardinal  de  Retz  was 
arrested  in  the  Louvre,  and  conveyed  from  prison  to  prison ; 
while  the  prince  of  Conde  himself,  pressed  by  Turenne,  and 
feebly  supported  by  the  Spaniards,  was  reduced  to  wage  on  the 
frontiers  of  Champagne  a  petty  and  unsuccessful  war. 

Such  was  the  termination  of  this  war  of  the  Fronde.  From 
this  time  Louis  exercised  an  undisputed  prerogative.  The 
country  was  no  longer  distracted  by  faction.  The  arrogance 
of  the  nobles  was  again  reduced  within  those  limits  which  the 
policy  of  Richelieu  had  dictated.  Arts  and  architecture,  and 
all  the  splendour  of  this  long  reign,  date  their  origin  from  this 
epoch  of  restored  domestic  tranquillity. 


CHARLES     I. 


ACCESSION   OF   CHARLES   I.    OF   ENGLAND.  273 


ACCESSION   OF  CHARLES  I.  AND  DEATH  OF 
THE  DUKE  OF   BUCKINGHAM. 

HARLES  was  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  his 
age  when  he  ascended  the  throne.  His  fea- 
tures were  regular,  and  he  would  have  been 
handsome,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  melan- 
choly cast  of  his  countenance.  His  deport- 
ment was  exceedingly  dignified.  In  the  mo- 
rality and  regularity  of  his  conduct  he  set  a 
good  example  to  his  court  and  people :  he  was  moderate  in  all 
his  habits  and  his  expenses,  humane  and  gentle  in  his  disposition, 
was  a  man  of  kind  affections,  and  a  most  tender  husband  and 
father. 

Charles's  mind  was  cultivated,  but  he  seldom  acted  as  wisely  as 
he  could  talk,  and  was  often  swayed  by  the  counsels  of  men  of 
far  inferior  capacity.  His  temper  was  somewhat  hasty,  but  he 
was  generous  and  forgiving.  With  all  Charles's  good  qualities, 
he  had  unfortunately  imbibed  some  prejudices  of  education  that 
proved  fatal  to  him  as  a  king.  He  had  too  high  an  idea  of  his 
royal  prerogative,  and,  with  every  desire  to  do  right,  had  not 
the  smallest  notion  of  the  true  principles  of  government  or 
policy. 

From  the  very  commencement  of  the  new  reign,  much  popular 
dissatisfaction  prevailed,  chiefly  because  the  king  surrendered 
himself  entirely  to  the  control  of  Buckingham,  who,  implacable 
in  his  hatreds,  fickle  in  his  friendships,  imperious  and  grasping 
in  his  desires,  was  regarded  with  universal  dislike. 

The  king's  marriage  with  Henrietta  Maria,  sister  to  the  king 
of  France,  was  also  very  displeasing  to  the  people,  principally 
because  she  was  a  Papist,  and  their  religious  feelings  were 
shocked  at  her  being  allowed  to  exercise  publicly  her  own  form 
of  worship.  She  also  offended  the  more  serious  part  of  the  na- 
tion, by  the  change  her  elegance  and  gayety  Avrought  in  the 
35 


274  INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN  HISTORY. 

manners  of  the  court ;  and  the  Puritans  found  less  to  dislike  in 
the  homely  vulgarity  of  the  late  Queen  Anne  of  Denmark  than 
in  the  grace  and  beauty  of  Henrietta. 

It  was  a  great  error  in  James,  and  one  into  which  Charles 
also  fell,  to  be  occupied  with  abstract  speculations,  that  is,  with 
thoughts  of  matters  which  did  not  concern  his  own  business  and 
duties,  and  not  to  see  what  passed  under  his  eyes.  Thus,  while 
James  was  writing  books  on  kingly  government,  he  never  per- 
ceived that  the  House  of  Commons  was  no  longer  that  subser- 
vient body  it  had  been  in  all  former  reigns,  but  that  it  had  at 
last  found  out  its  own  strength,  and  that,  from  being  the  slave  of 
kings,  it  was  now  able  to  be  their  ruler. 

Charles  also  had  been  equally  blind  to  this  change,  and  was 
not  aware  of  the  difficulties  which  he  was  bringing  on  himself 
by  his  rash  treatment  of  this  great  organ  of  the  popular  voice. 
The  first  year  of  his  reign  was  spent  by  him  in  making  attempts 
to  extend  his  authority,  and  by  the  Commons  in  trying  to  curb 
it.  Provoked  by  this  opposition,  Charles  hastily  dissolved  the 
parliament ;  and  thus  the  king  and  the  Commons  parted  in  mu- 
tual disgust  and  animosity,  and,  when  the  new  parliament  as- 
sembled, they  met  with  feelings  of  suspicion  and  dislike. 

Charles,  by  the  persuasion  of  Buckingham,  plunged  into  a 
war  with  France,  (a.  d.  1627,)  and  sent  some  troops  to  the  re- 
lief of  the  French  Huguenots  at  Rochelle.  Buckingham  had 
the  command  of  this  expedition,  which  was  ill-planned  and  un- 
skilfully executed ;  and  in  •  an  attempt  to  land  on  the  Isle  of 
Rh6,  he  was  repulsed  with  great  loss.  Another  expedition  for 
the  relief  of  Rochelle  was  fitted  out  in  1628,  and  Buckingham 
went  to  Portsmouth  to  survey  the  preparations. 

At  the  same  time  with  the  duke  a  man  by  the  name  of  Felton 
arrived  at  Portsmouth,  a  Puritan  of  a  melancholy  and  enthusi- 
astic turn  of  mind,  who,  hearing  the  universal  complaints  that 
were  made  against  the  favourite,  persuaded  himself  that  he 
should  do  his  country  a  service  by  destroying  him.  His  chief 
motive,  however,  was  probably  that  of  private  resentment,  at 
having  been  disappointed  in  his  own  hopes  of  promotion  in  the 
army. 

Felton  for  some  days  followed  the  duke  like  his  shadow,  but 
without  having  an  opportunity  to  eifect  his  purpose.  At  last, 
as  Buckingham  was  passing  through  a  door-way,  and  turning  to 


ACCESSION   OF   CHARLES   I.    OF  ENGLAND. 


275 


speak  to  Sir  Thomas  Fryer,  who  was  following  him,  an  arm  was 
suddenly  stretched  over  Sir  Thomas's  shoulder,  which  struck  a 
knife  into  the  duke's  breast.  All  this  passed  in  an  instant.  No 
one  saw  the  blow,  nor  the  person  who  gave  it ;  but  the  by- 
standers heard  Buckingham  exclaim,  "The  villain  has  killed 
me  •!"  and  saw  him  pull  the  knife  from  the  wound,  and  fall  dead 
at  their  feet. 

The  confusion  and  alarm  at  this  moment  were  very  great,  and 
every  one  rushed  forwards  in  search  of  the  murderer.  He  was 
rescued  with  some  difficulty  from  the  violence  of  the  bystanders, 
who  would  have  put  him  to  death  with  their  swords.  Felton 
was  afterwards  tried  and  executed. 


COSTUME   OP  REIGN   OP   CHARLES  I. 


276  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


CHARLES'S  WAR  WITH  SCOTLAND— FALL 
OF  STRAFFORD. 

FTER  the  death  of  Buckingham,  Charles  placed  his 
chief  confidence  in  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth,  after- 
wards Lord  Strafford,  and  in  Laud,  archbishop  of 
Canterbury.  The  first  was  a  man  of  great  talents 
and  of  a  strong  and  unbending  mind,  but,  unfortu- 
nately for  himself  and  his  master,  his  political  opin- 
ions would  have  better  suited  the  despotic  times  of  the 
Plantagenets  than  the  reign  in  which  he  was  placed. 

The  supplies  which  the  parliament  had  granted  since  Charles's 
accession  had  been  both  scanty  and  grudgingly  given ;  and  the 
late  king,  by  his  unthrifty  management,  had  left  the  treasury 
in  such  an  exhausted  state,  that  his  son,  though  frugal  and  regu- 
lar, soon  found  himself  greatly  embarrassed,  and  wanted  money 
to  defray  the  necessary  expenses  of  the  government. 

Charles  had  been  provoked,  by  the  unbending  sturdiness  of 
the  Commons,  to  dissolve  the  parliament  a  second  time ;  and  he 
now  declared  a  determination  to  govern  without  one  :  but  he  was 
no  gainer  by  this  imprudent  step,  for  his  necessities  soon  drove 
him  to  procure  money  by  many  arbitrary  and  unjustifiable 
means. 

The  exactions  of  the  Star  Chamber  were  enforced  with  great 
severity.  A  duty  called  tonnage  and  poundage,  which  had  been 
heretofore  given  to  the  reigning  monarch  as  an  especial  grant 
from  the  parliament,  Charles  took  upon  himself  to  levy  on  his 
own  authority.  He  also  imposed  a  tax  called  ship-money,  for 
the  express  purpose  of  maintaining  the  navy.  But  though  the 
money  was  employed  for  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  demanded, 
and  the  navy  put  into  a  more  serviceable  condition  than  it  had 
long  been  in,  still,  as  it  was  considered  an  illegal  tax,  the  people 
were  highly  irritated  at  its  being  levied. 

Things  were  in  this  state  in  England,  when  Charles,  with  an 


CHARLES'S   WAR   WITH   SCOTLAND.  277 

indiscreet  zeal,  tried  to  introduce  episcopacy  with  the  liturgy 
of  the  church  of  England  into  Scotland ;  but  the  Scots,  instead 
of  submitting  to  change  their  own  Presbyterian  form  of  worship, 
drew  up  a  protestation,  binding  themselves  to  resist  all  religious 
innovation.  This  protestation  they  called  the  Covenant,  and 
every  person,  from  one  end  of  Scotland  to  the  other,  was  re- 
quired to  sign  it. 

A  number  of  these  covenanters  next  formed  themselves  into 
an  army,  and  placed  themselves  under  the  command  of  the  earl 
of  Argyle,  seized  on  some  of  the  king's  castles,  and  hastily  for- 
tified the  town  of  Leith.  All  ranks  were  so  much  inflamed  by 
party  zeal,  that  even  ladies  were  seen  mixing  with  the  lowest 
rabble,  carrying  loads  upon  their  shoulders,  and  assisting  to 
complete  the  fortifications. 

The  king,  to  quell  these  disturbances,  marched  an  army  to 
Berwick,  and  negotiations  were  begun  between  him  and  the 
covenanters.  Charles's  visible  unwillingness  to  make  his  native 
land,  to  which  he  was  so  much  attached,  a  scene  of  bloodshed, 
only  served  to  encourage  the  Scots  in  their  unyielding  spirit. 
He  was  soon  obliged  to  disband  his  troops  for  want  of  money 
to  continue  their  pay,  and  he  made  many  concessions  to  the 
Scots  to  induce  them  to  return  to  their  homes  in  peace. 

This  the  Scots  pretended  to  do,  but  they  soon  after  appeared 
again  in  arms ;  and,  in  1640,  Charles  found  himself  in  such  a 
distressed  condition,  that,  after  an  interval  of  eleven  years,  he 
once  more  summoned  a  parliament,  in  hopes  it  would  grant  him 
some  assistance.  But,  as  soon  as  the  Commons  met,  instead  of 
paying  any  attention  to  the  king's  affairs,  it  immediately  en- 
tered on  its  own  grievances. 

This  parliament,  after  it  had  sat  only  a  few  months,  the  king, 
in  a  moment  of  irritation,  dissolved.  This  measure  he  had  af- 
terwards but  too  much  reason  to  repent.  His  necessities  were 
now  so  great,  that  he  was  obliged  to  borrow  money  of  his  min- 
isters and  courtiers.  With  the  greatest  difficulty  he  raised  a 
body  of  troops,  which  he  sent  against  the  Scots,  who  were  ad- 
vanced almost  to  Newcastle.  The  two  armies  met  at  Newburn, 
and  Charles's  troops  were  defeated.  He  was  thus  reduced  to 
greater  difficulties  than  ever,  and,  as  a  desperate  resource,  once 
more  summoned  a  parliament. 

The  late  events  had  not  tended  to  put  the  Commons  in  better 

y 


278  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

humour  with  the  king  or  his  ministers  ;  and  their  first  measure 
was  to  impeach  Strafford,  who,  having  been  formerly  a  Puritan, 
was  more  particularly  obnoxious  to  that  party,  one  of  whom, 
Pym,  an  active  leader  in  the  House,  had  formerly  said  to  him, 
"You  have  left  us,  but  we  will  not  leave  you  while  your  head  is 
on  your  shoulders."  And  they  so  well  remembered  and  kept 
their  word,  that  he  was  brought  to  trial  and  condemned  to 
death. 

The  king,  knowing  that  Strafford's  greatest  fault  in  the  eyes 
of  the  people  was  his  attachment  to  himself,  could  not  at  first 
bring  himself  to  assent  to  the  bill  of  attainder  that  was  passed 
against  him,  although  the  queen  and  some  of  his  other  advisers 
besought  him  to  make  that  sacrifice  to  the  public  outcry.  Juxon, 
bishop  of  London,  alone  advised  him  by  no  means  to  assent  to 
the  bill,  if  his  conscience  did  not  approve  of  it. 

Strafford  himself  wrote  to  the  king,  entreating  him,  for  the 
sake  of  public  peace,  no  longer  to  defer  his  assent  to  it,  and 
ended  his  letter  thus  : — "  My  consent  will  more  acquit  you  to 
God  than  all  the  world  can  do  besides.  To  you  I  can  resign 
the  life  of  this  world  with  all  imaginable  cheerfulness." 

Strafford  perhaps  thought  that  this  letter  would  rather  plead 
for  his  life  than  against  it,  and  he  seemed  greatly  surprised,  and 
for  the  moment  overcome,  when  he  was  informed  that  the  king 
had  actually  consented  to  his  execution.  But  he  might  have 
pitied  rather  than  have  blamed  him,  could  he  have  known  how 
much  present  grief  and  after  remorse  he  endured,  from  allowing 
his  consent  to  the  death  of  his  faithful  friend  and  servant  to  be 
thus  extorted  from  him. 

Charles,  unwilling  to  give  a  personal  assent  to  the  bill  which 
deprived  him  of  his  valued  servant,  sent  a  letter  to  the  Peers, 
entreating  them  to  confer  with  the  Commons,  for  a  mitigation  of 
the  sentence,  or  at  least  to  obtain  some  delay.  But  the  enemies 
of  Strafford  were  inexorable,  and  he  was  executed  May  12th, 
1641. 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR  IN  ENGLAND.         279 


BATHE    OF    EDGEHILL. 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR  IN 
ENGLAND. 

|T  will  be  impossible  to  enter  into  every  particular 
of  the  unhappy  differences  between  the  king  and 
the  Commons,  (a.  d.  1642.)  Each  party  be- 
coming more  and  more  incensed,  and  things 
being  likely  to  proceed  to  extremities,  the  king 
withdrew  to  York,  taking  with  him  his  two  eldest 
sons,  Charles  and  James. 

At  York  the  chief  nobility  and  gentry  of  the  kingdom  flocked 
to  him,  offering  their  services,  and  expressing  their  duty  and  at- 
tachment ;  for,  now  that  it  was  become  an  open  quarrel,  many 


2S0  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

who  had  shown  a  disapprobation  of  his  former  measures  con- 
demned the  violence  of  the  parliament,  and  took  part  with  the 
king.  The  peers,  with  the  exception  of  Lord  Essex  and  a  few 
others,  adhered  to  the  king  ;  while  the  Puritans  took  the  side  of 
the  parliament. 

The  royalists,  to  show  their  contempt  of  the  opposite  party, 
and  in  ridicule  of  the  formality  of  the  close-cropped  hair  of  the 
Puritans,  gave  them  the  name  of  roundheads  ;  while  they,  on 
their  side,  gave  to  the  royalists  the  titles  of  cavaliers  and  ma- 
lignants. 

It  was  now  apparent  that  a  civil  war  was  inevitable ;  but  each 
party  hung  back  from  commencing  hostilities,  in  the  hope  that 
the  other  would  incur  the  blame  of  being  the  first  to  draw  the 
sword.  At  last,  the  king,  having  been  refused  admittance  into 
the  town  of  Hull  by  Sir  John  Hotham  the  governor,  felt  him- 
self driven  to  the  necessity  of  taking  active  measures ;  and,  on 
August  20th,  1642,  he  erected  his  royal  standard  at  Not- 
tingham. 

The  first  battle  was  fought  October  3d,  at  Edgehill  in  War- 
wickshire. At  the  onset  Prince  Rupert  bore  down  every  thing 
before  him  ;  but  before  the  day  was  ended,  his  rash  imprudence 
lost  all  that  his  courage  had  gained.  The  two  armies,  after 
fighting  all  day,  remained  under  arms  during  the  night ,  but  the 
next  morning,  after  facing  each  other  again,  they  retired  from 
the  field  without  renewing  the  fight.  The  loss  on  each  side  was 
equal,  and  neither  gained  a  victory  ;  though  the  parliamentarians 
considered  themselves  as  somewhat  entitled  to  claim  it,  because 
the  king's  general,  Lord  Lindsey,  was  among  the  slain. 

The  siege  of  Reading,  which  was  garrisoned  for  the  king,  oc- 
cupied both  parties  for  many  months,  (a.  d.  1643.)  It  was  at 
last  taken  by  Essex,  in  the  month  of  April.  During  the  sum- 
mer the  royalists  were  victorious  in  a  battle  at  Lansdown,  near 
Bath  ;  and  in  another  fought  near  Devizes  ;  and  the  parliament 
had  a  great  loss  in  the  death  of  Hampden,  who  was  mortally 
wounded  in  a  skirmish  at  Chalgrave  Field,  near  Oxford. 

Hampden  was  a  man  of  such  exemplary  private  character, 
that  even  his  enemies  were  concerned  at  his  death.  The  king, 
who  had  now  made  Oxford  his  head-quarters,  was  desirous,  when 
he  heard  of  his  being  wounded,  to  send  his  own  surgeon  to  at- 
tend him  ;  but  in  the  interim  Hampden  died. 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR  IN  ENGLAND. 


281 


Mr.  Hampden  was  very  temperate  in  diet,  and  the  supreme 
governor  over  all  his  passions ;  he  was  of  an  industry  and  vigi- 
lance not  to  be  tired  out ;  of  an  understanding  not  to  be  imposed 
upon  ;  and  of  a  courage  equal  to  his  other  qualities.  Such  was 
Hampden's  moral  courage  that  he  dared  at  his  own  cost  to 
question  the  right  of  the  king  to  ship-money,  and  brought  the 
question  before  the  courts  of  law. 

This  tax  was  known  to  be  illegal ;  indeed,  there  was  nothing 
which  the  people  of  England  had  for  more  than  four  hundred 
years  better  known,  or  more  strenuously  insisted  upon  than  this 
— that  the  king  had  no  right  to  lay  a  tax  without  the  consent  of 
parliament.  But  the  judges  before  whom  this  violation  of  the 
laws  was  carried,  to  obtain,  if  possible,  a  decision  that  might 
thoroughly  expose  it  to  the  nation,  decided  that  the  king  had  a 
right  by  his  own  royal  authority  to  levy  this  tax  or  any  other 
that  he  might  think  needful. 

From  that  time,  Hampden's  resolution  to  oppose  the  king  and 
all  supporters  of  arbitrary  principles  and  measures  became  more 
inflexible.  In  the  beginning  of  the  civil  war  he  undertook  the 
command  of  a  regiment  in  the  parliamentary  army,  and  per- 
formed his  duty  faithfully  till  he  was  wounded  in  the  battle  of 
Chalgrave  Field.  He  survived  three  weeks,  and  then  gave  up 
a  life  he  had  devoted  to  the  cause  of  civil  liberty. 


t2 


282  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


CAPTURE  OF  CHARLES  I. 

EVERAL  years  after  the  civil  war  had  raged, 
the  king's  affairs  went  fast  to  ruin ;  and  he  lost, 
one  after  the  other,  almost  all  the  towns  he  had 
garrisoned.  He  himself  fled  into  Wales  and 
afterwards  to  Oxford,  where  he  passed  the  winter. 
Seeing  his  condition  desperate,  and  dreading 
above  all  things  to  be  made  prisoner  by  the  now 
triumphant  parliament,  he  formed  the  unfortunate  resolution  of 
throwing  himself  into  the  hands  of  the  Scots. 

He  accordingly  set  out  from  Oxford,  and  arrived  on  May  the 
5th  at  the  Scottish  camp  before  Newark,  (a.  d.  1.646.)  The 
Scottish  generals  were  much  surprised  at  the  appearance  of  the 
king :  and  though  they  affected  to  treat  him  with  respect,  they 
put  a  guard  upon  him,  and  made  him  in  reality  their  prisoner. 
The  Scots,  having  now  the  king  in  their  hands,  required  of  him 
to  send  orders  to  the  governors  of  Newark,  Oxford,  and  all  his 
other  garrisons,  to  surrender.  This  he  did,  and  the  soldiers  and 
officers  all  received  honourable  treatment  from  Fairfax. 

As  soon  as  the  parliament  knew  that  Charles  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  Scots,  it  began  to  treat  with  them  for  the  possession  of 
his  person.  The  Scots,  after  some  delays  and  hesitation,  agreed, 
on  condition  of  receiving  four  hundred  thousand  pounds,  the  ar- 
rears of  their  pay  due  from  the  parliament,  to  give  up  the  king. 
A  private  letter,  communicating  the  information  of  this  dis- 
graceful bargain,  was  brought  to  Charles  while  he  was  playing 
at  chess ;  and  his  self-command  was  so  great  that  he  continued 
his  game,  without  betraying  by  his  countenance  or  manner  that 
he  had  received  any  distressing  news.  In  a  few  days  he  was 
given  up  to  the  English  commissioners,  who  were  sent  by  the 
parliament  to  take  him  into  their  custody ;  and  he  was  conveyed, 
in  the  month  of  February,  to  Holmby,  in  Northamptonshire, 
one  of  his  own  royal  residences. 


CAPTURE  OF  CHARLES  I. 


283 


After  the  king  had  been  at  Holmby  some  weeks,  Cromwell 
formed  the  design  of  carrying  him  thence  by  force,  and  sent 
Cornet  Joyce,  with  five  hundred  men,  to  seize  him.  Joyce  came 
armed  with  pistols  into  the  king's  presence,  and  told  him  he 
must  come  along  with  him. 

The  king  asked  Joyce  upon  what  warrant  he  acted :  he  answered 
by  pointing  to  his  soldiers,  who  were  a  fine  body  of  men,  drawn 
up  in  the  court-yard.  The  king  said,  smiling,  "  Your  warrant  is 
indeed  written  in  fair  characters  and  legible  ;"  and  knowing  that 
resistance  would  be  in  vain,  immediately  consented  to  accompany 
him,  and  was  carried  to  the  head-quarters  of  the  army  at  Triplo 
Heath,  in  Cambridgeshire. 


COSTUME   OF    A    CAVALIER. 


284 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 


TRIAL  AND  EXECUTION  OF  CHARLES  I. 


LL  things  being  now  prepared  for  the  fatal  catas- 
trophe, the  king,  on  the  6th  of  January,  1649,  was 
impeached  of  high  treason  for  having  presumed 
to  appear  in  arms  against  the  parliament.  When 
he  was  informed  that  he  must  prepare  for  his 
trial,  he  said  little,  but  was  heard  uttering  to 
himself — "  God  is  everywhere  alike  in  wisdom, 
power,  and  goodness."  He  then  retired  to  his  apartment,  and 
spent  some  time  alone  and  in  prayer. 

On  the  18th  of  January,  Charles  was  removed  from  Windsor 
to  St.  James's  palace ;  and  his  guards  and  attendants  were  or- 
dered to  treat  him  as  no  longer  possessed  of  royal  dignity,  and 
to  call  him  merely  Charles  Stuart.      His  own  attendants  were 


TRIAL   AND   EXECUTION   OF   CHARLES   I.  285 

forbidden  to  wait  on  him  at  table,  and  the  common  soldiers  were 
appointed  to  bring  him  his  meals.  Charles  was  much  shocked 
at  this  mark  of  disrespect ;  but,  soon  recovering  his  composure, 
he  merely  said,  «  Nothing  is  so  contemptible  as  a  despised  king." 

The  preparations  for  the  trial  were  soon  made.  Cromwell 
declared  in  a  speech  in  parliament,  that  had  any  man  volunta- 
rily proposed  to  bring  the  king  to  punishment,  he  should  have 
regarded  that  man  as  the  greatest  traitor ;  but,  added  he, 
"  Providence  and  necessity  hath  cast  it  upon  us." 

On  the  20th  of  January,  the  king's  judges,  who  were  the  per- 
sons called  governors  of  the  kingdom,  assembled  in  Westminster 
Hall.  Charles  was  brought  three  several  days  before  the  court 
which  his  accusers  had  created  to  try  him,  and  each  time  refused 
to  acknowledge  its  jurisdiction.  On  the  last  of  these  days, 
January  27th,  he  was  pronounced  guilty  of  having  appeared 
in  arms  against  the  parliament,  and  was  condemned  to  be  be- 
headed on  the  third  day  after. 

When  he  had  returned  to  his  apartment  at  St.  James's,  he 
retired  into  his  room  with  Dr.  Juxon,  and  told  Mr.  Herbert 
to  refuse  admittance  to  all  persons  coming  to  take  leave  of  him ; 
adding,  »  My  time  is  short  and  precious,  and  I  am  desirous  to 
improve  it  the  best  I  may  in  preparation.  I  hope  those  who 
love  me  will  not  take  it  ill  that  they  have  not  access  to  me. 
The  best  office  they  can  now  do  me  is  to  pray  for  me." 

A  scaffold  was  erected  in  front  of  the  palace  at  Whitehall, 
and  on  January  30  he  was  brought  there,  attended  by  Juxon 
and  Herbert ;  but  the  latter  was  so  much  overwhelmed  with 
grief,  that  the  whole  melancholy  office  of  assisting  the  king  in 
his  last  moments  devolved  on  the  aged  bishop. 

On  the  scaffold,  the  king  spoke  a  few  words :  he  declared  him- 
self innocent  towards  his  people, — doubtless  he  thought  himself 
so, — but  acknowledged  himself  guilty  in  the  sight  of  God ;  and 
that  the  consent  which  he  had  once  given  to  the  execution  of  an 
unjust  sentence  was  now  deservedly  punished  by  an  unjust  sen- 
tence inflicted  on  himself;  so  heavily  did  the  death  of  Strafford 
still  press  upon  his  heart. 

Juxon  then  assisted  him  to  unrobe.  An  executioner,  whose 
face  was  concealed  by  a  mask,  then  struck  off  his  head,  and 
holding  it  up,  said,  "This  is  the  head  of  a  traitor!"  This 
bloody  spectacle  seemed  to  cause  a  sudden  revulsion  in  the 


286 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


minds  of  all  the  spectators,  who  felt  as  much  surprised  and 
shocked  as  if  the  catastrophe  they  witnessed  had  been  un- 
expected. 

Charles  was  in  the  forty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  and  the 
twenty-fifth  of  his  reign.  He  married  Henrietta  Maria,  daughter 
of  Henry  IV.,  king  of  France.  Their  children  were  three  sons 
and  three  daughters. 


ACCESSION  AND  GOVERNMENT  OF  CROMWELL.  287 


OLIVER   CROMWELL. 


ACCESSION  AND  GOVERNMENT  OF 
CROMWELL. 

HE  first  act  of  the  parliament  was 
to  abolish  the  House  of  Peers  as 
useless  and  dangerous.  A  new  great 
seal  of  England  was  made,  the 
legend  or  inscription  round  which 
was,  "  The  first  year  of  freedom  by- 
God's  blessing  restored  1648."  All 
loyalists  were  treated  with  great  se- 
verity, and  it  was  made  high  treason 
to  call  the  prince  of  Wales  by  any 
other  name  than  Charles  Stuart. 
The  forms  of  all  public  business  were  altered,  and  the  new  legis- 


288  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

lators  gave  to  their  government  the  name  of  the%commonwealth 
of  England. 

Cromwell  went  as  lord  lieutenant  to  Ireland,  (a.  d.  1649,) 
where  he  found  every  thing  in  a  very  distracted  state ;  but  in  a 
few  months  he  restored  order  in  the  island.  He  then  left  his 
son-in-law,  General  Ireton,  as  his  deputy,  the  affairs  of  Scotland 
calling  for  his  presence  in  that  country. 

The  Scottish  Presbyterians  had  refused  to  acknowledge  the 
English  republic ;  and,  resolving  to  adhere  to  the  monarchy, 
had  proclaimed  Prince  Charles  their  king,  and  sent  to  invite 
him  to  come  and  take  possession  of  the  throne  ;  but  on  such 
hard  conditions  that  those  who  were  his  best  friends  counselled 
him  not  to  make  such  sacrifices  for  the  empty  title  of  king. 

Charles,  who  entertained,  probably,  the  dishonest  intention 
of  breaking  through  these  conditions  whenever  he  should  be  able, 
agreed  to  them  and  returned  with  the  commissioners.  He  was 
not  suffered  to  set  his  foot  on  Scottish  ground  till  he  had  sign  3d 
the  covenant ;  and  the  moment  he  was  on  shore  he  was  beset 
by  the  Covenanters,  who  strove  to  convert  him  to  their  own 
opinions. 

He  now  found  himself  in  a  very  comfortless  situation.  The 
Presbyterians  kept  the  entire  administration  both  of  church  and 
state  in  their  own  hands,  and  though  they  allowed  him  the  name 
of  king,  they  did  not  treat  him  even  with  the  respect  due  to  a 
superior.  They  paid  so  little  regard  to  his  feelings,  that  they 
obliged  him  to  pass  under  the  gates  of  Aberdeen,  over  which  was 
hung  one  of  the  limbs  of  his  faithful  friend  and  servant,  the 
marquis  of  Montrose,  who  had  a  little  while  before  been  put  to 
death  for  appearing  in  arms  in  his  cause. 

Under  these  circumstances,  Charles  secretly  rejoiced  on  find- 
ing that  Cromwell  was  on  his  march  to  Scotland  with  a  power- 
ful army  for  the  purpose  of  driving  him  from  his  uneasy  throne. 
The  Scottish  army,  commanded  by  General  Leslie,  attacked 
Cromwell  near  Dunbar,  and  was  completely  beaten,  with  great 
loss ;  and  Cromwell  would  soon  have  been  entire  master  of  the 
kingdom,  had  he  not  been  attacked  with  a  fit  of  illness,  and  been 
obliged  to  return  to  England. 

Cromwell  again  entered  Scotland,  (a.  d.  1651,)  and  marched 
so  far  into  the  country  as  to  get  behind  the  army  of  the  Cove- 
nanters.    Charles,  who  was  with  the  army,  which  consisted  of 


37 


ACCESSION   AND    GOVERNMENT   OF   CROMWELL. 


291 


CHARLES    II.    IN    THE   WOOD    OF    BOSCOBBL. 


fourteen  thousand  men,  seeing  the  road  to  the  English  border 
thus  opened  to  him,  formed  the  bold  resolution  of  marching 
forwards  into  England,  falsely  presuming  that  all  who  were  dis- 
contented with  the  commonwealth  would  flock  to  his  standard. 

Charles  marched  forwards,  in  hopes  at  last  to  gather  strength ; 
but  he  arrived  at  Worcester  with  only  his  fourteen  thousand 
Scots.  Here  he  halted,  and  had  a  few  days'  rest  after  his  long 
and  fatiguing  march.  In  the  mean  time,  Cromwell,  when  he 
found  that  the  king  had  slipped  by  him,  left  the  command  of 
the  Scottish  war  to  General  Monk,  and  followed  Charles  with 
all  possible  expedition. 

Cromwell  raised  the  militia  of  the  several  counties  as  he 
passed,  so  that  by  the  time  he  reached  Worcester  he  mustered  a 
considerable  force.  The  next  day,  Sept.  4,  1651,  he  surrounded 
the  town  with  his  troops,  and,  falling  on  the  royal  army,  soon 
destroyed  it,  the  very  streets  being  filled  with  dead  bodies. 

Charles,  after  making  a  desperate  resistance,  was  at  last 


292  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

obliged  to  flee,  with  fifty  or  sixty  gentlemen  in  his  company. 
They  rode  about  twenty-six  miles  without  stopping.  It  was 
then  thought  advisable  for  them  to  separate.  Charles,  by  the 
advice  of  Lord  Derby,  went  to  a  lone  house  on  the  borders  of 
Staffordshire,  inhabited  by  a  man  of  the  name  of  Penderell,  who 
and  his  five  brothers  were  wood-cutters  in  the  neighbouring 
wood  of  Boscobel. 

Charles  committed  himself  to  the  care  of  these  men,  who 
showed  themselves  worthy  of  the  confidence  placed  in  them  ; 
for,  though  a  high  reward  was  offered  to  any  one  who  would 
deliver  up  the  prince,  and  it  was  declared  certain  death  to  con- 
ceal him,  these  honest  rustics  would  not  betray  him. 

On  one  occasion,  fearing  to  be  discovered  by  a  party  of  sol- 
diers who  were  searching  the  wood,  Charles  hid  himself  in  a 
large  oak  tree ;  from  among  the  branches  of  which  he  could 
hear  the  soldiers  say,  they  wondered  where  he  could  be,  for 
they  were  sure  he  was  somewhere  in  the  wood. 

Charles  was  wandering  about  not  less  than  six  weeks,  from  the 
time  of  the  battle  of  Worcester,  without  being  able  to  get  out  of 
the  country ;  and  the  risks  he  ran  of  discovery  were  very  great. 
At  last  he  arrived  at  a  lone  house,  between  Shoreham  and 
Brighthelmstone,  and  found  means  to  cross  the  water. 

While  Charles  was  thus  wandering  about,  the  party  in  power 
had  been  going  on  triumphantly.  The  victory  at  Worcester 
they  chose  to  call  their  "crowning  mercy."  Monk  had  been 
successful  in  Scotland  ;  Ireton  kept  every  thing  quiet  in  Ireland ; 
and  the  government,  elated  by  success,  soon  showed  a  desire  to 
lord  it  over  foreign  states ;  and,  in  1652,  declared  war  against 
the  Dutch. 

Holland  was  at  that  time  regarded  as  the  most  considerable 
maritime  power  in  Europe,  and  was  supposed  to  excel  all  other 
states  in  the  art  of  ship-building,  and  in  the  skill  of  her  seamen. 
But  now  the  English  navy,  which  the  late  king  had  paid  great 
attention  to,  and  which  was  manned  by  sailors  whom  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  time  had  made  bold  and  hardy,  was  found  a 
match  for  that  of  Holland  ;  and  Admiral  Blake  was  several  times 
the  victor  in  engagements  with  the  Dutch  admirals,  Van  Tromp, 
De  Ruyter,  and  De  Witt. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  success,  an  ignominious  fall  was  pre- 
paring for  that  comparatively  inconsiderable  band  of  men  who 


ACCESSION  AND  GOVERNMENT  OF  CROMWELL. 


293 


CROMWELL  EXPELLING  THE  PARLIAMENT. 


still  called  themselves  a  parliament.  Cromwell,  who  now  thought 
it  time  to  drive  them  from  the  high  station  which  he  had  suf- 
fered them  to  occupy,  went,  on  April  20, 1653,  to  the  parliament 
house  while  the  members  were  assembled,  and  placing  a  file  of 
soldiers  at  each  door,  entered  the  hall,  saying,  "that  he  was 
come  with  a  purpose  of  doing  what  grieved  him  to  the  very  soul, 
and  what  he  had  earnestly  besought  the  Lord  not  to  impose 
upon  him  ;  but  that  there  was  a  necessity  for  it." 

He  next  sat  down  and  heard  the  debates,  and  then  suddenly 
starting  up,  he  exclaimed:  "This  is  the  time,  I  must  do  it." 
Turning  to  the  members,  he  loaded  them  with  every  term  of  re- 
proach, and  called  them  tyrants,  oppressors,  and  public  robbers. 

z  2 


294  INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN  HISTORY. 

At  last  he  stamped  with  his  foot,  on  which  signal  the  soldiers 
entering  the  hall,  he  ordered  them  to  drive  all  the  members  out. 

As  the  members  took  their  compulsory  departure,  Cromwell 
said  to  them,  "You  are  no  longer  a  parliament;  the  Lord  has 
done  with  you :  he  has  chosen  other  instruments  for  carrying  on 
his  work."  He  stayed  till  the  hall  was  empty;  then  order- 
ing the  doors  to  be  locked,  he  put  the  keys  into  his  pocket,  and 
returned  to  the  palace  at  Whitehall,  where  he  and  his  family  had 
taken  up  their  residence. 

Cromwell  was  now  the  sole  head  of  the  government,  and  no 
one  attempted  to  dispute  his  power.  To  keep  up  the  appearance 
of  a  commonwealth,  he  summoned  a  parliament,  who  set  them- 
selves to  work  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  state.  They  consi- 
dered the  clerical  office  as  being  altogether  a  remnant  of  popery, 
and  proposed  that  there  should  be  no  more  clergy.  The  com- 
mon law  they  deemed  a  badge  of  Norman  slavery,  and  were 
desirous  to  set  it  aside.  They  also  voted  that  learning  was 
heathenish,  and  the  universities  unnecessary. 

This  parliament  had  the  name  given  it  of  Barebones's  parlia- 
ment, from  the  name  of  one  of  its  chief  orators.  At  last,  the 
measures  of  the  parliament  became  so  utterly  absurd  that  Crom- 
well became  ashamed  of  it,  and  suffered  one  only  of  their  many 
proposed  changes  and  regulations  to  be  carried  into  effect.  This 
one  was  in  regard  to  the  marriage  ceremony,  which  was  declared 
to  be  a  mere  civil  contract,  and  was  appointed  to  be  performed 
for  the  future  in  private  rooms,  before  a  magistrate,  instead  of 
being  solemnized  in  churches. 

Cromwell  had  at  this  time  the  title  of  Protector  conferred  on 
him.  The  mass  of  the  people  were  so  tired  of  the  tyranny  and 
oppression  of  the  parliament,  that  they  were  thankful  to  get  rid 
of  their  many  masters,  and  to  enjoy  any  thing  like  a  settled 
government.  And  Cromwell,  though  he  trampled  on  the  laws 
of  the  country,  would  suffer  no  other  person  but  himself  to  do 
so.  He  enforced  justice  and  civil  order,  and  made  his  govern- 
ment respected  at  home  and  feared  abroad. 

Cromwell  kept  up  the  power  of  the  navy,  and  soon  obliged 
the  Dutch  to  sue  for  peace.  He  attacked  the  Spaniards  because 
they  interrupted  the  English  in  their  traffic  with  Spanish  Ame- 
rica, and  took  from  them  the  island  of  Jamaica  in  the  West  In- 
dies, which  is  still  retained  by  the  English.     The  protectorship 


ACCESSION  AND  GOVERNMENT  OF  CROMWELL.  295 

was  not  only  confirmed  to  Cromwell  for  life,  but  was  also  settled 
on  whomsoever  he  should  choose  to  appoint  after  his  death. 

This  proceeding  alarmed  both  the  republicans  and  the  roy- 
alists, who  began  to  fear  that  a  power  so  well  established  would 
become  permanent,  to  the  destruction  of  their  different  hopes. 
In  1655,  a  plan  was  formed  for  a  general  rising  among  the 
royalists.  But  Cromwell  and  his  secretary,  Thurloe,  had  full 
information  of  their  designs,  and  before  the  appointed  day  of 
insurrection,  many  of  the  royalists  were  taken  up ;  some  were 
punished  with  death,  and  several  others  were  sold  for  slaves  and 
sent  to  Barbadoes.  This  despotic  act  struck  terror  throughout 
the  whole  nation ;  and  no  other  considerable  attempt  was  made 
to  overturn  the  protector's  power. 

Cromwell's  government  of  Ireland  was  equally  vigorous. 
Fleetwood,  who  had  married  his  eldest  daughter,  (Ireton's 
widow,)  was  his  deputy,  and  carried  many  of  his  arbitrary 
measures  into  effect.  Fleetwood  was  succeeded  by  the  pro- 
tector's second  son,  Henry,  a  young  man  of  great  abilities  and 
extraordinary  goodness,  who,  pitying  the  condition  of  the  Irish, 
did  all  he  could  to  improve  it. 

Cromwell,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  was  under  a  conti- 
nual dread  of  being  secretly  murdered.  And  though  he  had  often 
braved  danger  in  battle  with  intrepidity,  he  now  betrayed  a 
more  than  common  fear  of  death ;  and  every  moment  of  his 
life  was  made  miserable  by  the  apprehension  of  losing  it.  In 
addition  to  these  terrors,  he  had  many  causes  of  mortification 
in  his  own  family. 

Richard,  Cromwell's  eldest  son,  whom  he  meant  for  his  suc- 
cessor, was  a  man  of  inferior  talents  and  of  no  ambition.  Henry 
Cromwell  was  a  man  of  abilities,  but  had  too  much  virtue  to  be 
willing  to  follow  his  father's  footsteps.  Cromwell's  other 
daughters  were  zealous  royalists ;  and  Mrs.  Claypole,  the  one 
whom  he  loved  best  of  all  his  children,  represented  to  him,  when 
on  her  death-bed,  and  in  terms  which  filled  him  with  grief,  her 
disapprobation  of  the  conduct  which  he  had  pursued.  From  that 
time  he  was  never  seen  to  smile. 

Cromwell's  exertions  and  agitations  were  too  great  for  his 
bodily  frame  to  support.  He  found  the  exalted  state  to  which 
he  had  attained  a  burden  too  heavy  to  be  borne ;  and  died,  a 
worn-out  old  man,  on  September  3,   1658,  in  the  59th  year 


296 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


of  his  age.  He  was  buried  with  royal  pomp  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 

Cromwell's  character  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  in 
history.  His  talents  were,  in  some  respects,  of  the  very  highest 
order.  In  others,  he  was  strikingly  deficient.  His  government 
of  Ireland  ;  the  manner  in  which  he  treated  Holland  and  Spain, 
thus  vindicating  the  independence  and  naval  power  of  England, 
are  undoubted  proofs  of  the  energy  of  his  mind  and  the  wisdom 
of  his  policy. 

Richard  Cromwell  was  proclaimed  protector  in  his  father's 
place.  But  the  nation  soon  found  the  difference  between  the 
strong  hand  of  Oliver  Cromwell  and  the  feebleness  of  his  son, 
and  showed  a  disposition  to  cast  off  his  authority.  But  Richard, 
quietly  resigning  a  dignity  which  he  had  neither  the  power  nor 
the  inclination  to  keep,  wisely  saved  himself  from  being  dispos- 
sessed by  violence.    He  held  the  protectorship  only  a  few  months. 

Henry  Cromwell  also  resigned  his  command  in  Ireland; 
though  his  popularity  in  that  country  was  very  great,  and  he 
might  have  retained  his  power  there  if  he  had  chosen  to  do  so. 


A    PURITAN    SOLDIER. 


CHARLES     II. 


38 


RESTORATION   OF   CHARLES   II. 


299 


RESTORATION  OF   CHARLES   II. 


j§jHE  country  was  now  without  any  apparent  ruler, 
and  was  split  into  a  variety  of  factions.  The 
republicans  hoped  to  establish  their  long-desired 
form  of  popular  government,  and  the  royalists  in 
their  turn  were  full  of  expectations  and  projects. 
Charles,  meantime,  on  hearing  of  what  was 
passing  in  England,  left  the  Low  Countries,  where  he  had  for 
some  time  past  taken  refuge,  and  came  to  Calais,  where  he  stayed, 
awaiting  the  event.  For  some  time  there  seemed  little  chance 
of  any  turn  in  his  favour ;  but,  at  last,  what  the  efforts  of  his 
friends  could  not  do,  the  rivalry  of  his  enemies  brought  about. 

Lambert  and  Monk  had  long  hated  each  other;  and  Monk, 
partly  perhaps  to  disappoint  Lambert,  who  was  secretly  ambi- 
tious of  the  protectorship,  formed  the  design  of  bringing  back 
the  king,  and  entered  into  a  correspondence  with  him.     But  he 


300  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

kept  his  intentions  so  well  concealed  that  he  appeared  to  be  only 
acting  for  the  restoration  of  the  parliament. 

Monk  collected  several  scattered  regiments  in  Scotland,  and 
marched  directly  into  England.  Lambert  set  forward  to  meet 
him,  but  found  himself  deserted  by  his  own  soldiers  ;  and  the 
parliament,  being  no  longer  held  in  terror  by  the  troops,  as- 
sumed once  more  the  reins  of  government,  arrested  Lambert, 
and  committed  him  to  the  Tower. 

Monk  and  his  army  soon  reached  London.  He  appeared  at 
first  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the  parliament ;  but  in  a 
few  days  openly  avowed  his  contempt  of  that  obtrusive  body  of 
men,  and  declared  for  a  free  parliament.  He  called  together 
all  the  surviving  members  of  the  old  or  Long  Parliament,  who 
had  been  expelled  by  Colonel  Pride  in  1648.  They  met  on 
February  21,  1660,  and  in  a  few  days  formally  dissolved  them- 
selves, and  issued  writs  for  a  new  parliament,  which  assembled 
April  25. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  Monk,  having  every  thing  ripe  for  his 
project,  ventured  to  propose  to  parliament  the  restoration  of  the 
king.  It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  joy  with  which  this  pro- 
posal was  heard — a  joy  which  soon  spread  from  the  house  to 
the  city,  and  from  thence  through  the  whole  country.  The 
peers  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom  hastened  to  reinstate 
themselves  in  their  parliamentary  rights ;  and  on  the  8th  of 
May,  Charles  II.  was  proclaimed  king,  and  a  committee  of  gen- 
tlemen was  sent  to  invite  him  to  return  and  take  possession  of 
his  dominions. 

The  king  sailed  from  Scheveling,  a  small  village  on  the  coast 
of  Holland,  and  was  met  at  Dover  by  General  Monk,  who  con- 
ducted him  to  London,  which  he  entered  amidst  the  joyful  ac- 
clamations of  the  people,  May  29,  1660. 

Charles  was  thirty  years  old  when,  after  sixteen  years,  he  was 
so  unexpectedly  placed  on  the  throne  of  his  ancestors.  He  had  a 
good  figure,  and  though  his  features  were  harsh,  there  was  some- 
thing agreeable  in  his  countenance ;  and  his  cheerful,  easy,  and 
graceful  deportment  made  him  altogether  a  very  engaging  per- 
son. He  had  a  great  deal  of  shrewdness  and  wit ;  and  with  com- 
mon application  might  have  been  any  thing  he  pleased.  But  he 
loved  amusement,  and  hated  business,  and  to  live  idly  and  merrily 
was  all  he  cared  for. 


RESTORATION   OF   CHARLES   II. 


301 


iiPf 


EXECUTION    OF    SIR    HENRY    VANE. 


The  king  began  his  reign  by  forming  a  ministry  from  among 
the  best  and  wisest  men  of  all  parties,  and  he  gave  general 
satisfaction  by  the  choice  he  made.  An  act  of  indemnity,  or  of 
general  pardon,  was  then  passed  towards  all  those  who  had  taken 
part  against  the  crown,  excepting  only  the  judges  who  had  sat 
on  the  late  king's  trial,  and  all  those  who  had  in  any  other  way 
been  immediately  accessory  to  his  death.  About  sixty  persons 
had  been  concerned  in  that  act.  Of  these  many  were  dead, 
and  others  had  left  the  kingdom. 

Of  those  who  could  be  brought  to  trial,  ten  only  were  exe- 
cuted :  the  rest  were  reprieved  and  placed  in  different  prisons. 
Harrison,  who  had  conducted  Charles  I.  from  Hurst  Castle, 
was  among  those  who  suffered.  He  died  justifying  his  conduct 
to  the  last.  Hugh  Peters  also  was  executed.  He  had  been 
one  of  Cromwell's  fanatical  preachers,  and  had  not  only  been 
very  active  in  stirring  up  the  minds  of  the  people  against  the 
king ;  but  also,  it  was  supposed,  was  one  of  the  masked  exe- 
cutioners who  beheaded  him. 

General  Lambert  and  Sir  Henry  Vane,  though  they  were 
not  absolutely  regicides,  were  yet  thought  too  guilty  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  act  of  indemnity.  Vane  was  executed  :  Lambert 
was  reprieved  and  exiled  to  the  island  of  Guernsey,  where  he 

2A 


302  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

lived  thirty  years,  and  from  being  a  rigid  Puritan  became  a  Ro- 
man Catholic. 

This  act  of  retribution  being  performed,  the  ministry  applied 
themselves  to  the  business  of  the  state.  The  chancellor,  Lord 
Clarendon,  who  had  attended  the  king  during  his  exile,  had  the 
chief  weight  in  the  council,  and  by  his  integrity  and  wisdom  the 
government  was  carried  on  for  a  time  with  justice  and  modera- 
tion. The  old  standing  army  of  the  republicans  was  disbanded  : 
the  king  retained  only  a  few  guards  and  garrisons ;  and  most 
of  the  fortified  places  that  had  not  been  destroyed  in  the  civil 
wars  were  dismantled. 

Charles  married  Catherine  of  Braganza,  daughter  of  the  king 
of  Portugal,  (a.  d.  1662.)  The  new  queen  had  been  educated 
in  a  convent,  and  was  very  formal  and  grave :  she  rejected  the 
company  of  the  English  ladies,  and  would  only  have  about  her 
a  set  of  old  solemn  Spanish  duennas.  The  king  found  her  and 
her  court  so  dull  that  he  neglected  her  society,  and  spent  most 
of  his  time  with  idle  and  dissolute  companions  and  unprincipled 
women. 

Charles  entered  into  a  war  with  Holland,  which  afterwards 
led  to  a  rupture  with  France  and  Denmark,  (a.  d.  1664.) 
This  war  was  carried  on  wholly  by  sea ;  and  the  king's  brother, 
James,  duke  of  York,  an  active  enterprising  man,  commanded 
the  fleet.  Many  well-contested  actions  were  fought,  and  many 
fruitless  victories  gained.  One  of  these  engagements  lasted  four 
days,  and  is  among  the  most  memorable  recorded  in  history. 

The  Dutch  fleet  consisted  of  seventy-six  ships,  and  was  com- 
manded by  the  famous  De  Ruyter,  and  by  Van  Tromp,  son  of 
the  great  Van  Tromp.  The  English  fleet  was  commanded  by 
Prince  Rupert,  and  by  Monk,  then  duke  of  Albemarle,  and 
altogether  was  nearly  equal  to  the  Dutch.  The  detail  of  the 
different  engagements  of  the  four  days  would  be  little  instructive. 
On  the  last  day  neither  party  had  gained  the  victory. 

The  two  fleets  then  retired  to  their  harbours,  but  met  again, 
June  25th,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  when  the  English  ob- 
tained a  decisive  victory.  De  Ruyter,  indignant  at  being  obliged 
to  fly,  frequently  exclaimed,  "  0  God,  among  so  many  thou- 
sand bullets,  is  there  not  one  to  put  an  end  to  my  miserable 
life  !"  The  English  were  now  incontestably  masters  of  the  sea ; 
but  they  had  been  visited  at  home  during  this  year  by  so  many 


RESTORATION  OF   CHARLES   II. 


303 


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GKEAT    FIRE    OF    LONDON. 


calamities  that  they  had  no  spirit  to  rejoice  in  any  triumphs 
over  a  foreign  foe. 

In  the  preceding  autumn,  a  most  violent  plague  had  broken 
out,  particularly  in  London.  There,  in  a  short  time,  ninety 
thousand  persons  are  said  to  have  died  of  that  malady.  While 
London  was  still  suffering  under  this  calamity,  it  was  assailed 
also  by  another.  On  the  3d  of  September,  1666,  a  fire  broke 
out  near  London  Bridge,  which  spread  with  such  rapidity  that 
thirteen  thousand  houses  were  burnt  down. 

These  dreadful  scenes  were  not  without  some  good  effect  on 
the  king's  disposition,  and  detached  him  for  a  while  from  the 
idle  and  dissolute  habits  he  had  sunk  into ;  but  his  vicious  com- 
panions soon  got  about  him,  and  rallied  him  out  of  all  his  good 
resolutions  ;  and  he  relapsed  into  his  former  way  of  life. 

These  vicious  companions,  the  chief  of  whom  was  the  duke  of 
Buckingham,  had  long  meditated  the  overthrow  of  Lord  Cla- 


304 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN    HISTORY. 


LORD    CL  AREND  ON. 


rondon,  -whose  integrity  made  him  the  particular  object  of  their 
dislike.  It  happened  that  the  Dutch  fleet  sailed  up  the  Medway, 
and  destroyed  some  ships  in  the  harbour  at  Chatham.  A  peace 
was  made  with  Holland  soon  afterwards.  Buckingham  and  his 
party  found  means  of  turning  both  this  peace  itself,  and  also  the 
disgrace  at  Chatham,  to  the  particular  discredit  of  Clarendon, 
insinuating  that  the  latter  could  not  have  taken  place,  unless  he 
had  been  negligent  of  the  public  security. 

Charles,  who  had  little  gratitude  in  his  nature,  forgetting 
how  faithfully  this  great  statesman  had  served  him  in  all  his 
wanderings  and  necessities,  and  how  much  his  wisdom  had  con- 
tributed to  strengthen  him  on  the  throne,  was  not  sorry  to  have 
a  pretext  for  removing  a  man  who  was  some  check  upon  his 
vices.  Clarendon  was,  therefore,  impeached  on  various  frivo- 
lous pretences,  and  was  sentenced  to  banishment. 

Clarendon  retired  into  France,  and  employed  the  remainder  of 
his  life  chiefly  in  composing  his  History  of  the  Rebellion,  and 
also  in  writing  an  account  of  his  own  life.  His  youngest 
daughter,  Anne  Hyde,  married  the  duke  of  York  soon  after  the 
restoration.  She  died  young,  leaving  two  children,  the  princesses 
Mary  and  Anne. 


RESTORATION  OF  CHARLES   II.  305 

After  Clarendon's  disgrace,  Prince  Rupert,  the  duke  of  Or- 
mond,  Sir  Orlando  Bridgman,  and  other  men  of  experience  and 
high  character,  had  for  a  time  the  chief  weight  in  the  council. 
But  in  1670  their  influence  declined,  and  the  king,  whose  care- 
lessness about  public  affairs  daily  increased,  committed  the  entire 
management  of  the  state  to  five  of  the  most  unprincipled  men  in 
the  kingdom,  Clifford,  Ashley,  Buckingham,  Arlington,  and 
Lauderdale,  who  were  called  the  Cabal,  from  the  first  letters  of 
their  names. 

One  of  the  nefarious  measures  of  this  administration  was  to 
shut  up  the  exchequer,  and  to  take  possession  of  the  money 
which  private  individuals  had  placed  in  it.  Another,  and  a  still 
more  generally  unpopular  measure,  was  that  of  entering  into  a 
new  war  with  the  Dutch,  in  order  to  gratify  Louis  XIV.,  one  of 
the  most  ambitious,  vain-glorious,  and  unprincipled  kings  that 
ever  reigned. 

Charles  at  first  hesitated  to  take  such  an  unpopular  step  ;  but 
he  was  at  length  persuaded  into  it  by  his  sister  Henrietta, 
duchess  of  Orleans,  who  was  sent  on  a  visit  to  him  by  the  French 
king.  It  is  even  said  that  the  restoration  of  popery  in  England 
was  made  an  article  of  a  secret  treaty  between  the  two  kings. 
Charles,  if  he  had  any  religion  at  all,  was  in  his  heart  a  Papist ; 
and  the  duke  of  York  was  a  professed  one. 

The  French  and  English  fleets  now  joined  each  other.  As  they 
were  at  anchor  in  Solebay,  De  Ruyter  came  unexpectedly  upon 
them.  The  duke  of  York  commanded  in  chief,  in  the  action 
between  the  Dutch  and  the  combined  fleets,  and  had  his  ship  so 
shattered  that  he  was  obliged  to  remove  his  flag  on  board  another. 
The  battle  lasted  the  whole  day,  and  De  Ruyter  declared  that, 
of  the  thirty-two  actions  he  had  been  in,  this  was  the  hardest 
fought.  The  English  and  Dutch  lost  many  ships,  and  neither 
party  gained  any  thing.  The  French  took  care  to  keep  aloof 
during  the  engagement. 

Another  memorable  naval  action  was  fought  on  August  11, 
1673.  The  English  fleet  was  commanded  by  Prince  Rupert,  the 
Dutch  by  De  Ruyter.  In  this  battle  too,  as  in  many  of  the 
former,  nothing  was  gained  by  either  party. 

By  the  death  of  Clifford,  and  the  disgrace  of  Ashley,  who 
had  been  created  Lord  Shaftesbury,  the  cabal  was  broken  up. 
(a.  d.  1674.)  More  honest  ministers  came  into  place,  and  wiser 
39  2  a  2 


306 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


measures  were  pursued.  One  of  these  measures  was  to  make 
peace  with  Holland  ;  but  Charles  still  kept  up  with  France  a 
secret  alliance  on  the  most  dishonourable  terms.  He  received 
privately  from  Louis  XIV.  an  annual  pension  of  two  millions  of 
livres,  as  the  price  of  his  supporting  the  French  interest  in  his 
own  court. 

In  the  midst  of  a  life  of  vicious  indulgence,  Charles  was  at- 
tacked by  an  apoplexy,  and  died,  after  a  few  days'  illness,  Feb- 
ruary 6th,  1685,  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  and  the 
twenty-fifth  of  his  reign.  Charles  II.  married  Catherine  of 
Braganza,  daughter  of  the  king  of  Portugal.  They  had  no 
children. 


JAMES     II. 


ATTEMPT  TO  RE-ESTABLISH  THE  CATHOLIC  RELIGION.      30D 


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THE    BISHOPS    LEAVING!    THE    TOWER, 


ATTEMPT    OF  JAMES   II.   TO    RE-ESTABLISH 
THE  CATHOLIC   RELIGION   IN  ENGLAND. 

IjjP^lHE  duke  of  York,  who  succeeded  his 
*  brother  by  the  title  of  king  James 
II.  (a.  d.  1685,)  had  been  bred  a 
Papist  by  his  mother,  and  was 
strongly  bigoted  to  his  principles. 
He  went  openly  to  mass  with  all 
the  ensigns  of  his  dignity,  and 
even  sent  one  Caryl  as  his  agent  to 
Rome,  to  make  submission  to  the  pope,  and  to  pave  the  way  for 
the  readmission  of  England  into  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic 
church. 

Among  those  who  distinguished  themselves  against  Popery 
was  one  Dr.  Sharpe,  (a.  d.  1686,)  a  clergyman  of  London,  who 
declaimed  with  just  severity  against  those  who  changed  their 


310  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

religion  by  such  arguments  as  the  popish  missionaries  were  able 
to  produce.  This,  being  supposed  to  reflect  upon  the  king,  gave 
great  offence  at  court,  and  positive  orders  were  given  to  the 
bishop  of  London  to  suspend  Sharpe,  till  his  majesty's  pleasure 
should  be  further  known.  The  bishop  refused  to  comply,  and 
the  king  resolved  to  punish  the  bishop  himself  for  disobedience. 

To  effect  his  design,  an  ecclesiastical  commission  was  issued 
out,  by  which  seven  commissioners  were  invested  with  a  full  and 
unlimited  authority  over  the  whole  church  of  England.  Before 
this  tribunal  the  bishop  was  summoned,  and  not  only  he,  but 
Sharpe,  the  preacher,  suspended. 

The  next  step  was  to  allow  the  liberty  of  conscience  to  all 
sectaries ;  and  he  was  taught  to  believe,  that  the  truth  of  the 
Catholic  religion  would  then,  upon  a  fair  trial,  gain  the  victory. 
He,  therefore,  issued  a  declaration  of  general  indulgence,  and 
asserted  that  non-conformity  to  the  established  religion  was  no 
longer  penal. 

To  complete  his  work,  he  publicly  sent  the  earl  of  Castlemain 
ambassador  extraordinary  to  Rome,  in  order  to  express  his 
obedience  to  the  pope,  and  to  reconcile  his  kingdom  to  the 
Catholic  communion.  Never  was  there  so  much  contempt 
thrown  upon  an  embassy  that  was  so  boldly  undertaken.  The 
court  of  Rome  expected  but  little  success  from  measures  so 
blindly  conducted.  They  were  sensible  that  the  king  was 
openly  striking  at  those  laws  and  opinions  which  it  was  his 
business  to  undermine  in  silence  and  security. 

The  Jesuits  soon  after  were  permitted  to  erect  colleges  in 
different  parts  of  the  kingdom ;  they  exercised  the  Catholic 
worship  in  the  most  public  manner  ;  and  four  Catholic  bishops, 
consecrated  in  the  king's  chapel,  were  sent  through  the  kingdom 
to  exercise  their  episcopal  functions,  under  the  title  of  apostolic 
vicars. 

Father  Francis,  a  Benedictine  monk,  was  recommended  by  the 
king  to  the  university  of  Cambridge,  for  a  degree  of  master  of 
arts.  But  his  religion  was  a  stumbling-block  which  the  univer- 
sity could  not  get  over  ;  and  they  presented  a  petition,  beseech- 
ing the  king  to  recall  his  mandate.  Their  petition  was  disre- 
garded, and  their  deputies  denied  a  hearing  ;  the  vice-chancellor 
himself  was  summoned  to  appear  before  the  high  commission 


ATTEMPT  TO  RE-ESTABLISH  THE  CATHOLIC  RELIGION.       3H 

court,  and  deprived  of  his  office  ;  yet  the  university  persisted, 
and  father  Francis  was  refused. 

The  place  of  president  of  Magdalen  college,  one  of  the  richest 
foundations  in  Europe,  being  vacant,  the  king  sent  a  mandate  in 
favour  of  one  Farmer,  a  new  convert  to  popery,  and  a  man  of 
bad  character  in  other  respects.  The  fellows  of  the  college 
made  very  submissive  applications  to  the  king  for  recalling  his 
mandate  ;  they  refused  admitting  the  candidate,  and  James, 
finding  them  resolute  in  the  defence  of  their  privileges,  ejected 
them  all  except  two. 

A  second  declaration  for  liberty  of  conscience  was  published 
about  the  same  time  with  the  former ;  but  with  this  peculiar  in- 
junction, that  all  divines  should  read  it  after  service  in  their 
churches,  (a.  d.  1688.)  The  clergy  were  known  universally  to 
disapprove  of  these  measures,  and  they  were  now  resolved  to 
disobey  an  order  dictated  by  the  most  bigoted  motives.  They 
were  determined  to  trust  their  cause  to  the  favour  of  the  people, 
and  that  universal  jealousy  which  prevailed  against  the  en- 
croachment of  the  crown.  The  first  champions  of  this  service 
of  danger  were  Lloyd,  bishop  of  St.  Asaph  ;  Ken,  of  Bath  and 
Wells  ;  Turner,  of  Ely  ;  Lake,  of  Chichester  ;  White,  of  Peter- 
borough ;  and  Trelawney,  of  Bristol.  These,  together  with 
Sancroft,  the  primate,  concerted  the  address,  in  the  form  of  a 
petition  to  the  king,  which,  with  the  warmest  expressions  of  zeal 
and  submission,  remonstrated  that  they  could  not  read  his  decla- 
ration consistent  with  their  consciences,  or  the  respect  they 
owed  the  Protestant  religion. 

The  king  in  a  fury  summoned  the  bishops  before  the  council, 
and  there  questioned  them  whether  they  would  acknowledge 
their  petition.  They  for  some  time  declined  giving  an  answer ; 
but,  being  urged  by  the  chancellor,  they  at  last  owned  it.  On 
their  refusal  to  give  bail,  an  order  was  immediately  drawn  for 
their  commitment  to  the  Tower,  and  the  crown  lawyers  received 
directions  to  prosecute  them  for  a  seditious  libel. 

The  twenty-ninth  day  of  June,  (a.  d.  1688,)  was  fixed  for 
their  trial ;  and  their  return  was  more  splendidly  attended  than 
their  imprisonment.  The  cause  was  looked  upon  as  involving 
the  fate  of  the  nation ;  and  future  freedom  or  future  slavery 
awaited  the  decision.  The  dispute  was  learnedly  managed  by 
the  lawyers  on  both  sides.     Holloway  and  Powel,  two  of  the 


312  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

judges,  declared  themselves  in  favour  of  the  bishops.  The  jury 
withdrew  into  a  chamber,  where  they  passed  the  whole  night ; 
but  next  morning  they  returned  into  court,  and  pronounced  the 
bishops  not  guilty.  Westminster  Hall  instantly  rang  with  loud 
acclamations,  which  were  communicated  to  the  whole  extent  of 
the  city.  They  even  reached  the  camp  at  Hounslow,  where  the 
king  was  at  dinner,  in  Lord  Feversham's  tent.  His  majesty 
demanded  the  cause  of  these  rejoicings,  and  being  informed  that 
it  was  nothing  but  the  soldiers  shouting  at  the  delivery  of  the 
bishops,  "  Call  you  that  nothing  ?"  cried  he ;  "  but  so  much  the 
worse  for  them  !" 

It  was  in  this  posture  of  affairs  that  all  people  turned  their 
eyes  upon  William,  prince  of  Orange,  who  had  married  Mary, 
the  eldest  daughter  of  king  James. 

William  was  a  prince  who  had,  from  his  earliest  entrance  into 
business,  been  immersed  in  dangers,  calamities,  and  politics. 
The  ambition  of  France  and  the  jealousies  of  Holland  had 
served  to  sharpen  his  talents,  and  to  give  him  a  propensity  for 
intrigue. 

This  politic  prince  now  plainly  saw  that  James  had  incurred 
the  most  violent  hatred  of  his  subjects,  (a.  d.  1688.)  He  was 
minutely  informed  of  their  discontents ;  and  by  seeming  to  dis- 
courage, still  farther  increased  them,  hoping  to  gain  the  kingdom 
for  himself  in  the  sequel. 

The  time  when  the  prince  entered  upon  this  enterprise  was 
just  when  the  people  were  in  a  flame  about  the  recent  insult 
offered  to  their  bishops.  He  had  before  this  made  considerable 
augmentations  to  the  Dutch  fleet,  and  the  ships  were  then  lying 
ready  in  the  harbour.  Some  additional  troops  were  also  levied, 
and  sums  of  money  raised  for  other  purposes  were  converted  to 
the  advancement  of  this  expedition. 

So  well  concerted  were  his  measures,  that,  in  three  days, 
above  four  hundred  transports  were  hired  ;  the  army  fell  down 
the  rivers  and  canals  from  Nimeguen,  with  all  necessary  stores ; 
and  the  prince  set  sail  from  Helvoetsluys,  with  a  fleet  of  nearly 
five  hundred  vessels,  and  an  army  of  above  fourteen  thousand 
men. 

It  was  given  out  that  this  invasion  was  intended  for  the  coast 
of  France ;  and  many  of  the  English,  who  saw  the  fleet  pass 
along  their  coasts,  little  expected  to  see  it  land  on  their  own 


ATTEMPT  TO  RE-ESTABLISH  THE  CATHOLIC  RELIGION.      313 


WILLIAM    III.    LANDING    IN    ENGLAND. 


shores.  Thus,  after  a  voyage  of  two  days,  the  prince  landed 
his  army  at  the  village  of  Broxholme,  in  Torbay,  on  the  fifth  of 
November,  which  was  the  anniversary  of  the  gunpowder  treason. 

But  though  the  invitation  from  the  English  was  very  general, 
the  prince  had  for  some  time  the  mortification  to  find  himself 
joined  by  very  few.  He  marched  first  to  Exeter,  where  the 
country  people  had  been  so  much  terrified  at  the  executions 
which  had  ensued  on  Monmouth's  rebellion,  that  they  continued 
to  observe  a  strict  neutrality.  He  remained  for  ten  days  in  ex- 
pectation of  being  joined  by  the  malcontents,  and  at  last  began 
to  despair  of  success.  But,  just  when  he  began  to  deliberate 
about  re-embarking  his  forces,  he  was  joined  by  several  persons 
of  consequence,  and  the  whole  country  soon  after  came  flocking 
to  his  standard.  The  nobility,  clergy,  officers,  and  even  the 
king's  own  servants  and  creatures,  were  unanimous  in  deserting 
James.  Lord  Churchill  had  been  raised  from  the  rank  of  a 
page,  and  had  been  invested  with  a  high  command  in  the  army ; 
had  been  created  a  peer,  and  owed  his  whole  fortune  to  the 
king's  bounty  ;  even  he  deserted  among  the  rest,  and  carried 
with  him  the  duke  of  Grafton,  the  natural  son  of  the  late  king, 
Colonel  Berkeley,  and  some  others. 

The  prince  of  Denmark,  and  Anne,  his  favourite  daughter, 
40  2  B 


314  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

perceiving  the  desperation  of  his  circumstances,  resolved  to 
leave  him,  and  take  part  with  the  prevailing  side.  When  he 
was  told  that  the  prince  and  princess  had  followed  the  rest  of 
his  favourites,  he  was  stung  with  most  bitter  anguish.  "  God 
help  me,"  cried  he,  in  the  extremity  of  his  agony,  "my  own 
children  have  forsaken  me  !" 

The  king,  alarmed  every  day  more  and  more  with  the  prospect 
of  a  general  disaffection,  was  resolved  to  hearken  to  those  who 
advised  his  quitting  the  kingdom.  To  prepare  for  this,  he  first 
sent  away  the  queen,  who  arrived  safely  at  Calais,  under  the 
conduct  of  Count  Lauzun,  an  old  favourite  of  the  French  king. 
He  himself  soon  after  disappeared  in  the  night-time,  attended 
only  by  Sir  Edward  Hale,  a  new  convert ;  but  was  discovered 
and  brought  back  by  the  mob. 

But  shortly  after,  being  confined  at  Rochester,  and  observing 
that  he  was  entirely  neglected  by  his  own  subjects,  he  resolved 
to  seek  safety  from  the  king  of  France,  the  only  friend  he  had 
still  remaining.  He  accordingly  fled  to  the  sea-side,  attended 
by  his  natural  son,  the  duke  of  Berwick,  where  he  embarked  for 
the  continent,  and  arrived  in  safety  at  Ambleteuse  in  Picardy, 
from  whence  he  hastened  to  the  court  of  France,  where  he  still 
enjoyed  the  empty  title  of  a  king,  and  the  appellation  of  a  saint, 
which  flattered  him  more. 
^  The  king  having  thus  abdicated  the  throne,  the  next  consi- 
deration was  the  appointing  a  successor,  (a.  d.  1688.)  Some 
declared  for  a  regent  ;  others,  that  the  princess  of  Orange 
should  be  invested  with  regal  power,  and  the  young  prince  con- 
sidered as  supposititious.  After  a  long  debate  in  both  houses, 
a  new  sovereign  was  preferred  to  a  regent,  by  a  majority  of  two 
voices.  It  was  agreed  that  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Orange 
should  reign  jointly  as  King  and  Queen  of  England,  while  the 
administration  of  government  should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of 
the  prince  only. 


WAR   BETWEEN   FRANCE   AND   HOLLAND.  315 


WAR    BETWEEN   FRANCE    AND    HOLLAND- 
DEATH   OF   TURENNE. 

^g^g^gpTHE  rapid  successes  of  Louis  XIV.  gave 
«jjj  alarm    to    Europe ;    and   a   triple    alli- 
£:    -  I  jjH     =^J  F§f  ance  was  formed  against  Louis,  between 
f  jjl  England,    Holland,    and    Sweden, — and 

concluded  in  a  few  days.  The  grand 
pensioner  of  Holland,  John  de  Witt,  be- 
came the  soul  of  this  conspiracy,  which 
obliged  the  king  to  sign  the  treaty  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  whereby  he  retained  Flanders,  and  restored 
Franche-Comte\     (a.  d.  1668.) 

During  the  peace,  Louis  turned  his  attention  to  the  internal 
administration  of  his  kingdom,  and  to  the  affairs  of  the  church 
of  France,  disturbed  by  the  quarrels  of  Jansenism.  He  next 
meditated  taking  vengeance  upon  Holland  for  the  share  which 
it  had  taken  in  the  triple  alliance.  He  entertained  a  profound 
contempt  for  all  forms  of  government,  save  the  monarchical ; 
and,  notwithstanding  that  it  was  his  interest  to  conciliate  indus- 
trious citizens,  who  poured  annually  sixty  millions  of  money 
into  his  markets,  he  listened  only  to  his  hatred  and  scorn 
against  them.  This  was  one  of  the  great  faults  of  his  reign. 
Everywhere,  and  at  all  times,  he  found  before  him  this  nation 
of  merchants,  heretics,  and  republicans,  whose  existence  irri- 
tated him,  and  whose  wealth  purchased  enemies  against  him  in 
the  two  worlds.  Offended  by  certain  medals,  which  represented 
the  United  Provinces  as  the  arbiter  of  Europe,  and  enraged  by 
the  extravagance  of  certain  gazetteers,  the  king  seized  upon 
these  frivolous  pretexts  to  declare  war  against  the  Dutch.  He 
detached  from  their  alliance  the  bishops  of  Cologne  and  Mun- 
ster,  Charles  XI.,  king  of  Sweden,  and  Charles  II.,  king  of 
England,  always  ready  to  sacrifice  the  interests  of  his  people 
to  the  gratification  of  his  pleasures.     The  Dutch  navy  covered 


316  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

the  seas,  and  secured  the  commercial  prosperity  of  that  repub- 
lic by  protecting  its  magnificent  establishments  in  the  East  In- 
dies. Louis  XIV.  reinforced  his  with  fifty  English  vessels,  and 
entered  Holland  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  thousand  men. 
(1672.)  He  had  with  him  Turenne,  Vauban,  Luxembourg,  and 
Louvois.  The  latter  purveyed  with  admirable  foresight  for  the 
maintenance  and  equipment  of  the  troops,  by  the  establishment 
of  magazines  of  clothes  and  provisions,  till  then  altogether  un- 
known. Condd  commanded  the  army ;  and  had,  for  his  oppo- 
nent the  celebrated  William  of  Orange,  captain-general,  at 
twenty-two  years  of  age,  of  the  forces  of  the  republic.  The 
passage  of  the  Rhine,  more  boasted  of  than  glorious,  was  ef- 
fected, without  danger,  under  the  king's  eye,  in  the  face  of  the 
Dutch,  whose  numbers  were  too  inferior  for  resistance.  An 
imprudent  charge  cost  the  due  de  Longueville  his  life ;  and 
Conde  received  a  wound  which  compelled  him  to  surrender  the 
command  to  Turenne.  In  a  few  months,  three  provinces  and 
forty  fortresses  were  subdued.  John  de  Witt,  the  grand  pen- 
sioner, advised  his  countrymen  to  treat  with  the  conqueror ; 
and  advances  were  made  to  Louis  XIV.,  in  spite  of  the  lively 
opposition  of  the .  prince  of  Orange.  The  illustrious  Grotius, 
at  the  head  of  a  Dutch  deputation,  made  advantageous  propo- 
sals to  the  king ;  but  Louis  exacted  still  further  concessions, 
blinded  by  his  successes  and  self-love.  He  demanded  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  Catholic  religion  in  Holland — the  abandon- 
ment of  the  temples  to  the  Roman  worship — twenty  millions 
towards  the  expenses  of  the  war — the  cession  of  all  that  the 
United  Provinces  possessed  beyond  the  Wahl  and  the  Rhine — 
and,  finally,  propitiatory  medals  to  be  presented  to  him  every 
year  in  token  that  the  United  Provinces  held  their  existence 
and  liberties  from  him.  The  Dutch  people,  exasperated  by 
these  cruel  pretensions,  turned  their  fury  against  John  de  Witt 
and  the  admiral  Cornelius  de  Witt,  his  brother — accusing  them 
of  connivance  with  Louis.  They  were  murdered  by  the  popu- 
lace, their  bodies  torn  in  pieces,  and  subjected  to  a  thousand 
outrages.  Despair  gave  strength  to  the  conquered ;  and,  ani- 
mated by  patriotic  devotion,  they  bored  their  dykes,  and  laid 
the  country  under  water,  in  the  hope  of  compelling  the  French 
to  evacuate  it.  The  Dutch  admiral  Ruyter  strove  gloriously 
against  the  combined  fleets  of  France  and  England;  and  the 


WAR  BETWEEN   FRANCE   AND   HOLLAND.  317 

issue  of  the  battle  of  Saultsbay  delivered  the  coasts  of  the  re- 
public from  all  danger  of  further  insult.  Europe  began  to  be- 
stir itself  in  favour  of  Holland :  the  emperor  Leopold,  the 
king  of  Spain,  most  of  the  princes  of  the  empire,  and  the 
elector  of  Brandenburg,  Frederick-William,  the  first  founder 
of  the  high  fortunes  of  his  house — all  took  alarm  at  the  ambi- 
tion of  Louis  XIV.,  and  leagued  against  him.  Charles  II. 
himself  was  compelled,  by  his  parliament,  to  abandon  France. 
Menaced  by  such  a  host  of  enemies,  Louis  withdrew  his  troops 
from  the  conquered  towns,  the  fortifications  of  which  he  forgot 
to  destroy ;  and  all  Holland  was,  in  a  short  time,  evacuated, 
the  king  retaining  only  Grave  and  Maestricht.  But  Franche- 
Comte'  indemnified  him  for  so  many  losses ;  by  his  order,  the 
due  de  Noailles  and  Vauban  entered  that  province,  which  they 
conquered,  for  the  second  time,  in  six  weeks,  and  snatched  irre- 
vocably from  Spain.  (1674.) 

The  great  Conde',  making  head  against  the  prince  of  Orange, 
fought  now  his  last  battle,  near  Senef,  in  Flanders.  The  battle 
seemed  won  ;  but  William  rallied  his  troops,  and  arrested  the 
conquerors.  Three  times  did  Conde"  charge  him,  without  being 
able  to  drive  him  from  his  impregnable  position.  The  loss  was 
dreadful  on  both  sides ;  twenty-seven  thousand  dead  remained 
on  the  field  of  battle.  Conde*  had  three  horses  killed  under 
him.  The  battle  lasted  fourteen  hours,  and  the  issue  of  the 
day  remained  still  undecided. 

Turenne  was  more  fortunate  in  Alsace.  He  conquered,  at 
Sintzheim,  the  old  duke  of  Lorraine,  and  the  army  of  the  Im- 
perial Circles,  commanded  by  Eneas  de  Caprara.  After  this 
victory,  he  passed  the  Rhine  and  entered  the  palatinate,  where 
he  tarnished  his  laurels  by  permitting  frightful  ravages  :  two 
towns  and  twenty-five  villages  there  were  delivered  a  prey  to 
the  flames.  Speedily,  however,  recalled  into  Alsace,  by  the  pro- 
gress of  the  army  of  the  Circles,  he  awaited  it  in  the  environs 
of  Landau  and  Wissemburg,  where  he  remained  in  defiance  of 
the  formal  orders  of  Louvois  and  of  Louis  XIV.,  by  whom  he 
was  ordered  to  defend  Champagne  and  Lorraine,  which  were 
threatened  with  invasion.  Turenne,  however,  succeeded  in 
convincing  the  king,  and  justified  his  conduct  by  twice  beating 
an  enemy  superior  to  him  in  force — first,  at  Ansheim,  and  after- 
wards at  Turkheim,  and  obliging  him  to  evacuate  Alsace,  and 

2b2 


318  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

repass  the  Rhine,  reduced  in  numbers  by  one-half.  This  cam- 
paign and  the  following  were  Turenne's  master-pieces,  and  put 
the  final  seal  to  his  reputation.  The  emperor  sent  against  him 
Montecuculli,  the  greatest  of  his  captains,  and  conqueror  of 
Saint-Gothard.  The  two  great  rivals  first  made  mutual  proof 
of  each  other's  skill,  in  a  series  of  scientific  manoeuvres,  which 
remain  to  this  day  the  admiration  of  tacticians.  At  length, 
both  seemed  on  the  point  of  giving  battle,  near  the  village  of 
Salzbach,  in  the  territory  of  Baden,  and  Turenne  conceived 
himself  secure  of  victory,  when,  in  visiting  a  battery,  he  was 
struck  dead  by  a  cannon-shot.  (167-5.)  The  same  ball  carried 
away  the  arm  of  M.  de  Saint-Hilaire,  lieutenant-general  of  in- 
fantry, who,  on  seeing  his  son  burst  into  tears  by  his  side,  ex- 
claimed— "Not  for  me,  my  son,  but  for  this  great  man,  should 
you  weep."  Turenne  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-four.  Born  a 
Protestant,  he  had  become  a  convert  to  Catholicism,  and  was 
buried  in  the  tomb  of  the  kings,  at  Saint-Denis.  Montecuculli, 
informed  of  his  death,  compelled  his  two  successors,  Generals 
De  Lorges  and  Vaubrun,  to  repass  the  Rhine.  Vaubrun  was 
killed  in  the  passage  of  the  river,  but  De  Lorges  effected  his 
retreat.  The  free  town  of  Strasburg  immediately  offered  its 
bridge  to  Montecuculli,  who  penetrated  into  Alsace.  Conde', 
despatched  to  meet  him,  arrested  his  march,  and  forced  him  to 
evacuate  the  province.  This  was  the  last  campaign  of  these 
two  great  captains. 

The  due  de  Cre'qui  suffered  himself  to  be  beaten,  in  the  same 
year,  at  Consurbruck,  by  the  duke  of  Lorraine  ;  but  this  reverse 
was  effaced  by  some  brilliant  successes.  Messina  had  thrown 
off  the  Spanish  yoke,  and  placed  itself  under  the  protection  of 
France.  Assisted  by  the  Dutch  fleet,  the  Spaniards  endea- 
voured to  retake  it.  Duquesne,  at  the  head  of  a  French  fleet, 
frustrated  their  plans.  He  gained  the  naval  battle  of  Strom- 
boli,  and  that  of  Agosta,  which  cost  Admiral  Ruyter  his  life. 
(1676.)  The  mare'chal  de  Vivonne  completed  the  destruction 
of  the  enemy's  fleet,  on  its  coming  out  of  Palermo.  These 
glorious  operations  were  followed  by  two  brilliant  campaigns  of 
the  king,  in  Flanders.  The  heroic  taking  of  Valenciennes,  by 
the  musketeers,  in  open  day,  (1677,) — those  of  Cambray  and 
Saint-Omer — and  the  victory  of  Cassel,  gained  by  the  duke  of 
Orleans,  the  king's  brother,  against  the  prince  of  Orange,  ter- 


DEATH     OF     T  U  K  E  N  X  E. 


WAR   BETWEEN   FRANCE   AND   GERMANY. 


321 


urinated  this  war,  unjustly  undertaken,  but  gloriously  concluded ; 
and  Louis  saw  himself  the  arbiter  of  the  destinies  of  Europe. 
The  states-general  of  Holland  were  weary  of  a  struggle  sus- 
tained only  by  means  of  their  subsidies  ;  and  a  congress  assem- 
bled at  Nimeguen,  where  peace  was  signed  on  the  10th  of  August, 
1678.  Holland  recovered  all  which  had  been  taken  from  her 
during  the  war;  Spain  abandoned  Franche-Comte*,  and  a  great 
number  of  places  in  the  Netherlands ;  the  emperor  ceded  the 
two  Imperial  towns,  of  which  the  mare'chal  de  Feuillade  had 
gained  possession,  and  surrendered  Friburg  in  exchange  for 
Philipsburg ;  and  France's  right  of  possession  over  Alsace  was 
confirmed.  The  young  duke  of  Lorraine,  the  nephew  of 
Charles  IV.,  refused  to  submit  himself  to  the  law  of  Louis  XIV., 
and  rejected  the  conditions  on  which  he  was  to  be  re-established 
in  his  states,  which  France,  therefore,  continued  to  occupy ; 
and  Sicily  was  evacuated. 


41 


322 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


WAR  BETWEEN  FRANCE  AND  GERMANY. 


0  the  advantages  secured  by  the 
peace  of  Nimeguen,  Louis  added 
others,  not  less  important,  which  he 
obtained  by  fraud  and  violence.  It 
was  stated,  in  the  treaty,  that  the 
various  cessions  should  be  accom- 
panied by  all  their  dependencies; 
but  it  had  been  the  intention  of  the 
negotiators  that  all  these  annexations  should  be  regu- 
lated in  concert.  Louis,  however,  assumed  the  right 
to  arrange  them  alone  ;  and  established,  in  conse- 
quence, a  sovereign  court  at  Besanc,on,  and  two  coun- 
cils, equally  supreme,  one  at  Brisach,  and  the  other  at  Metz, 
commissioned  to  pronounce,  without  appeal,  on  the  annexations 
to  his  crown.  By  this  arbitrary  proceeding,  the  king  of 
Sweden,  the  duke  of  Wirtemberg,  and  Deux  Ponts,  the  elector 
palatine,  the  elector  of  Treves,  and  an  infinity  of  other  princes, 
were  despoiled  of  a  portion  of  their  dominions,  and  summoned 
to  do  homage  in  respect  of  others  of  their  possessions.  Louis 
seized  upon  Strasburg,  in  a  manner  not  less  violent.  Louvois 
and  the  marquis  de  Montclar  appeared  suddenly  before  that 
place  with  twenty  thousand  men.  Induced  by  threats  and  se- 
duction to  capitulate,  it  was  annexed  to  France,  and,  fortified 
by  Vauban,  became  the  rampart  of  the  kingdom  against  Ger- 
many. 

Justly  indignant  at  these  usurpations,  the  powers  of  Europe 
signed  a  new  league  on  the  very  day  of  the  capture  of  Stras- 
burg. But  three  hundred  thousand  Turks  had,  at  that  period, 
poured  down  upon  the  empire ;  and  Vienna,  reduced  by  them 
to  extremity,  must  have  fallen,  but  for  the  aid  of  John  Sobi- 
eski,  king  of  Poland,  and  Prince  Charles  of  Lorraine,  both  of 
whom  had  joined  themselves  to  the  army  of  the  Circles.     Leo- 


WAR   BETWEEN   FRANCE   AND   GERMANY. 


323 


pold,  and  most  of  the  other  powers,  too  much  weakened  to 
recommence  the  war,  protested  against  France  without  acting. 
Spain,  alone,  ventured  to  fight,  and  lost  Courtray,  Dixmude, 
and  Luxemburg.  A  truce  of  twenty  years,  to  which  the  empe- 
ror and  Holland  were  parties,  was  concluded  at  Ratisbon. 
(1684.)  By  this  truce,  the  king  was  authorized  to  retain,  dur- 
ing its  continuance,  Luxemburg,  Strasburg,  and  all  the  annexa- 
tions decreed  by  his  sovereign  courts.  Thus  Louis  XIV.,  in 
extending  his  conquests  by  illegitimate  methods,  accumulated 
on  his  own  head  hoarded  resentments,  which  were  destined  to 
break  out  against  him  in  the  day  of  adversity. 


324  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


ACCESSION  OF  PHILIP  V.  OF  SPAIN. 


^HARLES  II.,  king   of  Spain,  was 

A    languishing  at  the  point  of  death  ; 

/i\   and  the  kings  of  France  and  Eng- 


land, together  with  the  emperor  Leo- 
pold, were  already  meditating  the  partition 
of  his  vast  territories  among  themselves. 
Charles,  by  his  first  will,  executed  in  1698, 
had  nominated  as  his  heir  the  electoral  prince 
of  Bavaria,  aged  only  six  years.  That  young  prince,  however, 
died  in  the  following  year ;  and  the  expiring  monarch,  after 
long  consultation  with  the  pope,  the  Spanish  universities,  and  his 
own  council,  appointed  as  his  successor  Philip,  due  dAnjou, 
grandson  of  his  eldest  sister  Maria-Theresa,  and  son  of  the 
dauphin  of  France.  In  case  Philip  should  refuse  to  renounce 
his  claims  to  the  crown  of  France,  his  brother,  the  due  de  Berry, 
was  substituted  for  him  ;  and  after  the  due  de  Berry  was  named 
the  archduke  Charles,  the  second  son  of  the  emperor.  In  any 
event,  the  testator  forbade  the  dismemberment  of  the  Spanish 
monarchy.     He  died  in  1700. 

Louis  XIV.  knew  that  to  accept  this  will  would  be  to  involve 
France  in  a  new  war,  and  brave  Europe,  at  all  times  sufficiently 
inclined  to  reproach  him  with  aiming  at  universal  monarchy. 
He  could  not,  however,  resist  the  temptation  of  placing  so  bril- 
liant a  crown  on  the  head  of  his  grandson ;  and,  after  some 
hesitation,  he  accepted — acknowledged  the  due  d'Anjou  as 
king  by  the  title  of  Philip  V.,  and  sent  him  into  Spain  with 
those  celebrated  words :  "  The  Pyrenees  exist  no  longer."  The 
emperor  immediately  protested ;  and  a  year  had  scarcely 
elapsed  ere  Holland,  England,  and  the  empire  made  common 
cause  against  Louis  XIV-  That  monarch  had  committed  two 
grievous  faults — the  one  in  sending  letters-patent  to  Philip  V., 


LOUIS     XIV.    ACKNOWLEDGES     HIS    GRANDSON     KING     OP     SPAIN. 


2C 


ACCESSION   OF   PHILIP   V.  OF   SPAIN. 


327 


whereby  his  rights  to  the  crown  of  France  were  preserved 
against  the  express  will  of  the  testator ;  the  other,  in  acknow- 
ledging as  king  of  England,  on  the  death  of  James  II.,  his  son 
the  prince  of  Wales,  in  defiance  of  a  formal  clause  in  the 
treaty  of  Ryswick.  The  tears  of  James's  widow  and  the  im- 
portunities of  Madame  de  Maintenon  had  prevailed  with  the 
king  over  the  unanimous  advice  of  his  council.  The  combined 
powers  made  immediate  preparation  for  that  terrible  war,  known 
in  history  under  the  name  of  the  war  of  succession,  (1701,)  in 
which  the  north  of  Europe  alone  had  no  part,  divided,  as  it  then 
was,  between  Peter  the  Great  and  Charles  XII.  The  only 
supporters  of  Louis  XIV.  against  this  formidable  league  were 
the  king  of  Portugal,  the  duke  of  Savoy,  and  the  electors  of 
Bavaria  and  Cologne. 


328 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


KZJ 


SIEGE  OF  VIENNA. 


v  HE  Hungarians,  whose  privileges  the  emperor 
Leopold  had  never  sufficiently  respected,  had 
again  broken  out  into  rebellion ;  and  Tekeli,  the 
head  of  the  insurgents,  had  called  in  the  Turks 
to  the  support  of  his  countrymen.  By  the  as- 
sistance of  the  basha  of  Buda,  he  ravaged  Sile- 
sia, and  reduced  many  important  places  in  Hun- 
gary; while  Mahomet  IV.,  the  reigning  sultan,  was  preparing 
the  most  formidable  force  that  the  Ottoman  empire  had  ever 
sent  against  Christendom. 


SIEGE   OF   VIENNA.  329 

Leopold,  foreseeing  that  the  gathering  storm  would  finally 
break  upon  Germany,  besides  demanding  the  assistance  of  the 
princes  of  the  empire,  concluded  an  offensive  and  defensive 
alliance  with  John  Sobieski,  king  of  Poland.  Meanwhile  the 
grand  vizier,  Kara  Mustapha,  passing  through  Hungary,  at  the 
head  of  fifty  thousand  janizaries,  thirty  thousand  spahis,  and 
two  hundred  thousand  common  men,  assembled  for  the  occasion, 
with  baggage  and  artillery  in  proportion  to  such  a  multitude, 
advanced  towards  Vienna.  The  duke  of  Lorrain,  who  com- 
manded the  Imperial  forces,  attempted  in  vain  to  oppose  the 
progress  of  the  invader.  The  Turks,  under  the  grand  vizier, 
took  the  right  of  the  Danube,  and  Tekeli,  with  the  Hungarians, 
the  left.  Seeing  his  capital  threatened  on  every  side,  the  em- 
peror retired  first  to  Lintz,  and  afterwards  to  Passau.  Two- 
thirds  of  the  inhabitants  followed  the  court ;  and  nothing  was 
to  be  seen,  on  all  sides,  but  fugitives,  equipages,  and  carriages 
laden  with  movables.  The  whole  empire  was  thrown  into  con- 
sternation. 

The  garrison  of  Vienna  amounted  to  about  fifteen  thousand 
men  ;  and  the  citizens  able  to  bear  arms,  to  near  fifty  thousand. 
The  Turks  invested  the  town  on  the  17th  of  July,  1683 ;  and 
they  had  not  only  destroyed  the  suburbs,  but  made  a  breach  in 
the  body  of  the  place  by  the  first  of  September.  The  duke  of 
Lorrain  had  been  so  fortunate  as  to  prevent  the  Hungarians  from 
joining  the  Turks,  but  was  unable  to  lend  the  garrison  any  re- 
lief ;  and  an  assault  was  every  moment  expected,  when  a  deli- 
verer appeared.  John  Sobieski,  king  of  Poland,  having  joined 
his  troops  to  those  of  Saxony,  Bavaria,  and  the  Circles,  made 
a  signal  to  the  besieged  from  the  top  of  the  mountain  of  Calem- 
berg,  and  inspired  them  with  new  hopes.  Kara  Mustapha, 
who,  from  a  contempt  of  the  Christians,  had  neglected  to  push 
the  assault,  and  who,  amidst  the  progress  of  ruin,  had  wan- 
toned in  luxury,  was  now  made  sensible  of  his  mistake,  when 
too  late  to  repair  it. 

The  Christians,  to  the  number  of  sixty-four  thousand,  de- 
scended the  mountain,  under  the  command  of  the  king  of  Po- 
land, the  duke  of  Lorrain,  and  an  incredible  number  of  German 
princes.  The  grand  vizier  advanced  to  meet  them  at  the  head 
of  the  main  body  of  the  Turkish  army,  while  he  ordered  an 
assault  to  be  made  upon  the  city  with  twenty  thousand  men, 
42  2c2 


330 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


who  were  left  in  the  trenches.  The  assault  failed;  and  the 
Turks,  being  seized  with  a  panic,  were  routed  almost  without  re- 
sistance. Only  five  hundred  of  the  victors  fell,  and  not  above 
one  thousand  of  the  vanquished.  And  so  great  was  the  terror, 
and  so  precipitate  the  flight  of  the  infidels,  that  they  aban- 
doned not  only  their  tents,  artillery,  and  baggage,  but  left  be- 
hind them  even  the  famous  standard  of  Mahomet,  which  was 
sent  as  a  present  to  the  pope  !  The  Turks  received  another 
defeat  in  the  plain  of  Barcan  ;  and  all  Hungary,  on  both  sides 
of  the  Danube,  was  recovered  by  the  Imperial  arms. 

The  king  of  France,  who  had  supported  the  malcontents  in 
Hungary,  and  who  encouraged  the  invasion  of  the  Turks,  raised 
however  the  blockade  of  Luxemburg,  when  they  approached 
Vienna.  "I  will  never,"  said  he,  "  attack  a  Christian  prince, 
while  Christendom  is  in  danger  from  the  infidels."  He  was  con- 
fident, when  he  made  this  declaration,  that  the  Imperial  city 
would  be  taken,  and  had  an  army  on  the  frontiers  of  Germany, 
ready  to  oppose  the  farther  progress  of  those  very  Turks  whom 
he  had  invited  thither  !  By  becoming  the  protector  of  the 
empire,  he  hoped  to  get  his  son  elected  king  of  the  Romans. 
But  this  scheme  being  defeated,  and  the  apprehensions  of 
Christendom  removed  by  the  relief  of  Vienna  and  the  expulsion 
of  the  Turks,  Louis  returned  to  the  siege  of  Luxemburg, 
(a.  d.  1684  ;)  and  reduced,  in  a  short  time,  not  only  that  place, 
but  also  Courtray  and  Dixmude,  as  already  related. 


.-^  •  :  :  i 


KING     HILIP'S   WAR. 


331 


BURNING    OF     DEERFIELD. 


KING   PHILIP'S   WAR. 


HE  state  of  prosperous  repose 
which  New  England  enjoyed  for 
several  years  was  interrupted  by 
a  general  conspiracy  of  the  In- 
dian tribes,  (1674,)  that  pro- 
duced a  war  so  bloody  and  for- 
-  midable  as  to  threaten  for  some 
^  time  the  utter  destruction  of  all 
the  settlements.  This  hostile 
combination  was  promoted  by  a 
young  chief  whose  history  reminds  us  of  the  exploits  of  Opechan- 
canough  in  Virginia.  He  was  the  second  son  of  Massasoit,  a 
prince  who  ruled  a  powerful  tribe  inhabiting  territories  adjacent 
to  the  settlement  of  Plymouth  at  the  time  when  the  English  first 


332  INCIDENTS   OP   MODERN   HISTORY. 

gained  a  footing  in  the  country.  The  father  had  entered  into 
an  alliance  with  the  colonists,  and,  after  his  death,  his  two  sons 
expressed  an  earnest  desire  to  retain  and  cultivate  their  friend- 
ship. They  even  requested  of  the  magistrates  of  Plymouth,  as 
a  mark  of  identification  with  their  allies,  that  English  names 
might  be  given  them ;  and,  in  compliance  with  their  desire,  the 
elder  received  the  name  of  Alexander,  and  the  younger  of  Philip. 
But  these  expressions  of  good-will  were  prompted  entirely  by 
the  artifice  that  regulated  their  schemes  of  hostility ;  and  they 
were  both  shortly  after  detected  and  disappointed  in  a  treache- 
rous attempt  to  involve  the  Narragansets  in  hostilities  with  the 
colonists.  The  haughty  spirit  of  the  elder  brother  was  over- 
whelmed by  this  disgrace.  Unable  to  brook  the  detection  and 
discomfiture  of  his  perfidy,  and  perhaps  additionally  stung  by 
the  generous  clemency  of  the  colonists,  which  lent  aggravation  to 
his  infamy,  he  abandoned  himself  to  despair,  and  died  of  the 
corrosion  of  rage  and  mortification.  Philip,  after  the  death  of 
his  brother,  renewed  the  alliance  between  his  tribe  and  the 
English ;  but  nothing  was  farther  from  his  thoughts  than  the 
fulfilment  of  his  engagements.  Subtle,  fierce,  artful,  and  dissem- 
bling, yet  stern  in  adventurous  purpose  and  relentless  cruelty, 
he  meditated  a  universal  conspiracy  of  the  Indians  for  the  ex- 
tirpation of  the  colonists,  and  for  several  years  pursued  this  de- 
sign as  secretly  and  successfully  as  the  numerous  difficulties  that 
encompassed  him  would  permit.  Next  to  the  growing  power  of 
the  European  settlers,  nothing  more  keenly  provoked  his  indig- 
nation than  the  progress  of  their  missionary  labours  ;  and  in 
reality,  it  was  to  these  labours,  and  some  of  the  consequences 
they  produced,  that  the  colonists  were  indebted  for  their  preser- 
vation from  the  ruin  that  would  have  attended  the  success  of 
Philip's  machinations.  Some  of  the  tribes  to  whom  he  applied 
revealed  his  propositions  to  the  missionaries  ;  and  several  Indians 
who  had  embraced  his  schemes  were  persuaded  by  their  con- 
verted brethren  to  renounce  them.  The  magistrates  of  Plymouth 
frequently  remonstrated  with  him  on  the  dishonour  he  incurred 
and  the  danger  he  provoked  by  the  perfidious  machinations  of 
which  from  time  to  time  they  obtained  information ;  and  by  re- 
newed and  more  solemn  engagements  than  before,  he  endeavoured 
to  disarm  their  vigilance  and  allay  their  apprehension.  For  two 
or  three  years  before  the  present  period,  he  pursued  his  hostile 


KING   PHILIP'S   WAR.  333 

projects  with  such  successful  duplicity  as  to  elude  discovery,  and 
even  suspicion ;  and  had  now  succeeded  in  uniting  some  of  thfe 
fiercest  and  most  powerful  of  the  Indian  tribes  in  a  confederacy 
to  make  war  on  the  colonists  to  the  point  of  extermination. 

A  converted  Indian,  who  was  labouring  as  a  missionary  among 
the  tribes  of  his  countrymen,  having  discovered  the  plot,  re- 
vealed it  to  the  governor  of  Plymouth,  and  was  soon  after  found 
dead  in  a  field,  under  circumstances  that  left  no  doubt  of  assas- 
sination. Some  neighbouring  Indians,  suspected  of  being  the 
perpetrators  of  this  crime,  were  apprehended,  and  solemnly  tried 
before  a  jury,  consisting  half  of  English  and  half  of  Indians, 
who  returned  a  verdict  of  guilty.  At  their  execution,  one  of 
the  convicts  confessed  the  murder, — declaring,  withal,  that  its 
commission  had  been  planned  and  instigated  by  Philip ;  and  this 
crafty  chief,  alarmed  at  the  perilous  disclosure,  now  threw  off 
the  mask,  and  summoned  his  confederates  to  his  aid.  The 
States  of  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  and  Connecticut  took  arms 
for  their  common  defence, — having  first  employed  every  means 
to  induce  Philip  to  accommodate  the  quarrel  by  a  friendly 
treaty.  But  a  bloodless  issue  was  not  what  Philip  desired ;  and 
perceiving  that  the  season  of  secret  conspiracy  was  over,  he  re- 
jected all  negotiation,  and  commenced  a  general  war,  (1675,) 
which  was  carried  on  with  great  vigour  and  various  success. 
Though  Philip's  own  tribe  supplied  no  more  than  five  hundred 
warriors,  he  had  so  increased  his  force  by  alliances  that  he  was 
able  to  bring  three  thousand  men  into  the  field.  This  formidable 
host,  conducted  by  a  chief  who  was  persuaded  that  the  war  must 
terminate  in  the  total  ruin  of  one  or  other  of  the  conflicting 
parties,  made  exertions  of  which  the  Indians  were  hitherto  sup- 
posed incapable.  Several  battles  were  fought,  and  all  the  fury, 
havoc,  and  cruelty  which  distinguish  Indian  warfare  were  ex- 
perienced in  their  fullest  extent  by  the  English.  Wherever  the 
enemy  marched,  their  route  was  marked  with  slaughter  and  deso- 
lation. Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  were  the  states  that  suf- 
fered principally  from  the  contest.  There,  especially,  the  In- 
dians were  so  mingled  with  the  European  colonists,  that  there 
was  scarcely  a  part  of  the  country  which  was  not  exposed  to 
danger,  or  a  family  which  had  not  to  bewail  the  loss  of  a  relative 
or  friend.  In  a  woodland  scene  near  the  village  of  Deerfield, 
in  Massachusetts,  Captain  Lothrop  and  a  party  of  the  provincial 


334  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

troops  were  suddenly  attacked  by  an  Indian  force  commanded 
by  Philip  himself;  and,  unaware  that  to  encounter  such  an 
enemy  with  effect  he  ought  to  place  his  men  in  phalanx,  Lothrop 
posted  them  separately  behind  trees,  where  he  and  every  one  of 
them,  to  the  number  of  ninety-three,  were  presently  shot  down  ; 
other  provincial  troops  now  pressing  up  with  unavailing  succour, 
defeated  the  Indians  and  put  them  to  flight.  But,  more  elated 
with  their  first  success  than  daunted  by  their  final  check,  these 
savages  speedily  reappeared  before  the  village  and  shook  the 
scalps  and  bloody  garments  of  the  slaughtered  captain  and  his 
troop  before  the  eyes  of  the  inhabitants.  Deerfield  was  shortly 
after  deserted  by  its  harassed  settlers,  and  destroyed  by  the 
triumphant  Indians.  It  is  a  truth  not  yet  sufficiently  illus- 
trated, that,  in  all  the  Indian  wars  of  this  period,  the  savages, 
from  the  condition  of  the  country,  their  own  superior  acquaint- 
ance with  it,  and  their  peculiar  habits  of  life  and  qualities  of 
body  and  mind,  enjoyed  advantages  which  wellnigh  counter- 
balanced the  superiority  of  European  science.  They  seemed  to 
unite  the  instinct  and  ferocity  of  the  brutal  creation  with  the 
art  and  sagacity  of  rational  beings,  and  were,  in  single  combat 
and  in  the  conflict  of  very  small  numbers,  as  superior,  as  in 
more  numerous  encounter  they  were  inferior,  to  civilized  men. 
Changing  their  own  encampments  with  facility,  and  advancing 
upon  those  of  the  colonists  with  the  wary,  dexterous  secrecy  of 
beasts  of  prey,  with  them  there  was  almost  always  the  spirit  and 
audacity  of  attack,  and  with  their  adversaries  the  disadvantages 
of  defence  and  the  consternation  produced  by  surprise ;  nor 
could  the  colonists  obtain  the  means  of  attacking,  in  their  turn, 
without  following  the  savages  into  forests  and  swamps,  where 
the  benefit  of  their  higher  martial  qualities  was  lost,  and  the 
system  of  European  warfare  rendered  impracticable.  The 
savages  had  long  been  acquainted  with  fire-arms,  and  were  re- 
markably expert  in  the  use  of  them. 

For  some  time  the  incursions  of  the  Indians  could  not  be 
restrained  ;  and  every  enterprise  or  skirmish  in  which  they 
reaped  the  slightest  credit  or  advantage  increased  the  number 
of  their  allies.  But  the  savage  artifice  which  Philip  employed, 
on  one  occasion,  for  the  purpose  of  recruiting  his  forces,  recoiled 
with  merited  injury  on  himself.  Repairing  with  a  band  of  his 
adherents  to  the  territory  of  a  neutral  tribe,  he  caused  certain 


KING   PHILIP'S   WAR.  335 

of  the  people  who  belonged  to  it  to  be  surprised  and  assassi- 
nated ;  and  then,  proceeding  to  the  head-quarters  of  the  tribe,  he 
affirmed  that  he  had  seen  the  murder  committed  by  a  party  of 
the  Plymouth  soldiers.  The  tribe,  in  a  flame  of  rage,  declared 
war  on  the  colonists ;  but  their  vindictive  sentiments  soon  took 
another  direction  ;  for  one  of  the  wounded  men,  having  reco- 
vered his  senses,  made  a  shift  to  crawl  to  the  habitations  of  his 
countrymen,  and,  though  mortally  injured,  was  able,  before  he 
expired,  to  disclose  the  real  author  of  the  tragedy.  Revoking 
their  former  purpose,  the  tribe  thereupon  declared  war  on  Philip, 
and  espoused  the  cause  of  his  enemies.  Hostilities  were  pro- 
tracted till  near  the  close  of  the  following  year,  when  the  steady 
efforts  and  determined  courage  of  the  colonists  prevailed  ;  and, 
after  a  series  of  defeats,  and  the  loss  of  all  his  family  and  chief 
councillors,  Philip  himself  was  killed  by  one  of  his  own  tribe 
whom  he  had  offended.  (August,  1676.)  Deprived  of  its  chief 
abettor,  the  war  was  soon  terminated  by  the  submission  of  the 
Indians.  Yet  to  certain  of  the  tribes  the  colonists  sternly 
denied  all  terms  of  capitulation,  and  warned  them,  before  their 
surrender,  that  their  treachery  had  been  so  gross  and  unpro- 
voked, and  their  outrages  so  atrocious  and  unpardonable,  that 
they  must  abide  the  issue  of  judicial  arbitrament.  In  confor- 
mity with  this  declaration,  some  of  the  chiefs  were  tried  and 
executed  for  murder ;  and  a  number  of  their  followers  were 
transported  to  the  West  Indies,  and  sold  as  slaves.  Never 
before  had  the  people  of  New  England  been  engaged  in  hostili- 
ties so  fierce,  so  bloody,  or  so  desolating.  Many  houses  and 
flourishing  villages  were  reduced  to  ashes  ;  and  in  the  course  of 
the  warfare  six  hundred  persons  of  European  birth  or  descent, 
composing  the  flower  and  strength  of  several  of  the  districts, 
either  fell  in  battle,  were  massacred  in  their  dwellings,  or  ex- 
pired beneath  the  tortures  inflicted  by  the  savages  on  their  cap- 
tives. The  military  operations  of  the  colonists  in  these  cam- 
paigns were  thought,  and  perhaps  justly,  to  disclose  less  skill 
and  conduct  than  had  been  displayed  in  the  Pequod  War.  They 
were,  indeed,  no  longer  commanded  by  the  experienced  officers 
who  accompanied  their  ancestors  from  Europe ;  and  they  were 
opposed  to  an  enemy  much  more  formidable  than  the  Pequods. 
But  the  firm,  enduring  valour  they  manifested  was  worthy  of 
men  whose  characters  were  formed  under  institutions  no  less 


336  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

favorable  to  freedom  than  virtue,  and  who  fought  in  defence  of 
all  they  held  dear  and  valuable.  Among  other  officers,  Captain 
Church,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Captain  Dennison,  of  Connecticut, 
have  been  particularly  celebrated  by  the  provincial  historians 
for  their  heroic  ardour  and  fortitude.  In  the  commencement  of 
the  war,  the  surprising  treachery  practised  by  the  hostile  In- 
dians naturally  excited  apprehensions  of  the  defection  of  the 
Indian  congregations  which  the  missionaries  had  collected  and 
partly  civilized.  But  not  one  of  these  people  proved  unfaithful 
to  their  benefactors. 

The  Indian  warfare  by  which  New  England  was  desolated 
during  this  period  was  not  bounded  by  the  hostilities  of  Philip 
and  his  confederates.  An  attack  was  made  at  the  same  time  on 
New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  by  the  tribes  that  were  situated  in 
the  vicinity  of  these  settlements.  The  Indians  complained  that 
they  had  been  defrauded  and  insulted  by  some  of  the  English 
traders  in  that  quarter ;  but  strong  suspicions  were  entertained 
that  their  hostilities  were  promoted  by  the  French  government, 
now  re-established  in  Acadia.  The  invasion  of  those  territories 
was  distinguished  by  the  usual  guile,  ferocity,  and  cruelty  of  the 
savages.  Many  of  the  inhabitants  were  massacred,  and  others 
carried  into  captivity.  Prompt  assistance  was  rendered  to  her 
allies  by  Massachusetts  ;  and  after  a  variety  of  sharp  engage- 
ments, the  Indians  sustained  a  considerable  defeat.  They  were, 
notwithstanding,  still  able  and  willing  to  continue  the  war  ;  and 
both  their  numbers  and  their  animosity  were  increased  by  a 
measure  which  the  provincial  government  adopted  against  them. 
It  was  proposed  to  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  to  invite 
the  Mohawk  tribe,  who,  from  time  immemorial,  had  been  the 
enemies  of  the  Eastern  Indians,  to  make  a  descent  on  their  ter- 
ritories at  this  juncture.  The  lawfulness  of  using  such  auxilia- 
ries was  questioned  by  some ;  but  it  was  deemed  a  satisfactory 
answer  to  the  objection,  that  Abraham  confederated  with  the 
Amorites  for  the  rescue  of  his  kinsman,  Lot,  from  the  hands  of 
a  common  enemy  ;  and  messengers  were  accordingly  despatched 
to  solicit  the  co-operation  of  the  Mohawks.  Little  entreaty  was 
necessary  to  induce  them  to  comply  with  the  invitation  ;  and  a 
band  of  Mohawk  warriors  quickly  marched  against  their  heredi- 
tary foes.  The  expedition,  however,  so  far  from  producing  the 
slightest  benefit,  was  attended  with  serious  disadvantage  to  the 


KING   PHILIP'S   WAR. 


337 


cause  of  the  colonists.  The  Indians  who  were  their  proper  ene- 
mies suffered  very  little  from  the  Mohawk  invasion  ;  while  some 
powerful  tribes,  who  had  been  hitherto  at  peace  with  the  colonists, 
exasperated  by  injuries  or  affronts  which  they  received  from 
those  invaders,  now  declared  war  both  against  them  and  their 
English  allies.  At  last,  the  intelligence  of  Philip's  overthrow, 
and  the  probability  of  stronger  forces  being  thus  enabled  to 
march  against  them,  inclined  the  Eastern  Indians  to  hearken  to 
proposals  of  peace.  The  war  in  this  quarter  was  terminated  by 
a  treaty  favourable  to  the  Indians,  to  whom  the  colonists  en- 
gaged to  pay  a  certain  quantity  of  corn  yearly  as  a  quitrent  for 
their  lands. 


43 


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338 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 


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ACCESSION  OF  WILLIAM  III.  OF  ENGLAND- 
BATTLES  OF  THE  BOYNE  AND  OF  AUr 
GHRIM. 


/ILLIAM,  as  soon  as 
elected  to  the  throne, 
began  to  experience 
the  difficulty  of  go- 
verning a  people  who 
were  more  ready  to  examine  the 
commands  of  their  superiors  than 
to  obey  them.      (a.  d.  1688.) 

His  reign  commenced  with  an 
attempt  similar  to  that  which  had 
been  the  principal  cause  of  all  the 
disturbances  in  the  preceding  reign,  and  which  had  excluded 
the  monarch  from  the  throne.  William  was  a  Calvinist,  and 
consequently  averse  to  persecution ;    he  therefore   began   by 


ACCESSION  OF  WILLIAM  in.  341 

attempting  those  laws  which  enjoined  uniformity  of  worship ; 
and,  though  he  could  not  entirely  succeed  in  his  design,  a  tole- 
ration was  granted  to  such  dissenters  as  should  take  the  oaths 
of  allegiance  and  hold  no  private  conventicle. 

In  the  mean  time,  James,  whose  authority  was  still  acknow- 
ledged in  Ireland,  embarked  at  Brest  for  that  kingdom,  and  on 
May  22d  arrived  at  Kinsale.  He  soon  after  made  his  public 
entry  into  Dublin,  amidst  the  acclamations  of  the  inhabitants. 
He  found  the  appearance  of  things  in  that  country  equal  to  his 
most  sanguine  expectations.  Tyrconnel,  the  lord-lieutenant, 
was  devoted  to  his  interests ;  his  old  army  was  steady,  and  a 
new  one  was  raised,  amounting  together  to  nearly  forty  thou- 
sand men.  As  soon  as  the  season  would  permit,  he  went  to  lay 
siege  to  Londonderry,  a  town  of  small  importance  in  itself,  but 
rendered  famous  by  the  stand  it  made  on  this  occasion. 

The  besieged  endured  the  most  poignant  sufferings  from  fa- 
tigue and  famine,  until  at  last  relieved  by  a  storeship  that  hap- 
pily broke  the  boom  laid  across  the  river  to  prevent  a  supply. 
The  joy  of  the  inhabitants  at  this  unexpected  relief  was  only 
equalled  by  the  rage  and  disappointment  of  the  besiegers.  The 
army  of  James  was  so  dispirited  by  the  success  of  this  enterprise, 
that  they  abandoned  the  siege  in  the  night,  and  retired  with 
precipitation,  after  having  lost  about  nine  thousand  men  before 
the  place. 

It  was  upon  the  opposite  sides  of  the  river  Boyie  that  both 
armies  came  in  sight  of  each  other,  inflamed  with  all  the  ani- 
mosities arising  from  a  difference  of  religion,  hatred,  and  re- 
venge, (a.  d.  1690.)  The  river  Boyne  at  this  place  was  not 
so  deep  but  that  men  might  wade  over  on  foot ;  however,  the 
banks  were  rugged,  and  rendered  dangerous  by  old  houses 
and  ditches,  which  served  to  defend  the  latent  enemy.  William, 
who  now  headed  the  Protestant  army,  had  no  sooner  arrived, 
but  he  rode  along  the  side  of  the  river  in  sight  of  both  armies, 
to  make  proper  observations  upon  the  plan  of  battle ;  but  in 
the  mean  time,  being  perceived  by  the  enemy,  a  cannon  was 
privately  brought  out,  and  planted  against  him  where  he  was 
sitting.  The  shot  killed  several  of  his  followers,  and  he  him- 
self was  wounded  in  the  shoulder. 

Early  the  next  morning,  at  six  o'clock,  King  William  gave 
orders  to  force  a  passage  over  the  river.     This  the  army  under- 

2d2 


342  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

took  in  three  different  places  ;  and,  after  a  furious  cannonading, 
the  battle  began  with  unusual  vigour.  The  Irish  troops,  though 
reckoned  the  best  in  Europe  abroad,  have  always  fought  indif- 
ferently at  home.  After  an  obstinate  resistance,  they  fled  with 
precipitation,  leaving  the  French  and  Swiss  regiments,  who 
came  to  their  assistance,  to  make  the  best  retreat  they  could 
William  led  on  his  horse  in  person,  and  contributed  by  his 
activity  and  vigilance  to  secure  the  victory.  James  was  not  in 
the  battle,  but  stood  aloof  during  the  action  on  the  hill  of  Dun- 
more,  surrounded  with  some  squadrons  of  horse,  and  at  inter- 
vals was  heard  to  exclaim,  when  he  saw  his  own  troops  repulsing 
those  of  the  enemy,  "  0,  spare  my  English  subjects  !" 

The  Irish  lost  about  fifteen  hundred  men,  and  the  Protestants 
about  one-third  of  that  number.  The  victory  was  splendid, 
and  almost  decisive ;  but  the  death  of  the  duke  of  Schomberg, 
who  was  shot  as  he  was  crossing  the  water,  seemed  to  outweigh 
the  whole  loss  sustained  by  the  enemy. 

The  last  battle  fought  in  favour  of  James  was  at  Aughrim. 
(a.  d.  1691.)  The  enemy  fought  with  surprising  fury,  and  the 
horse  were  several  times  repulsed;  but  the  English,  wading 
through  the  middle  of  a  bog  up  to  the  waist  in  mud,  and  rally- 
ing with  some  difficulty  on  the  firm  ground  on  the  other  side, 
renewed  the  combat  with  great  fury.  St.  Ruth,  the  Irish  gene- 
ral, being  killed,  his  fate  so  discouraged  his  troops  that  they 
gave  way  on  all  sides,  and  retreated  to  Limerick,  where  they 
resolved  to  make  a  final  stand,  after  having  lost  above  five  thou- 
sand of  the  flower  of  their  army.  Limerick,  the  last  retreat 
of  the  Irish  forces,  made  a  brave  defence ;  but  soon  seeing  the 
enemy  advanced  within  ten  paces  of  the  bridge-foot,  and  per- 
ceiving themselves  surrounded  on  all  sides,  they  determined  to 
capitulate  ;  a  negotiation  was  immediately  begun,  and  hostili- 
ties ceased  on  both  sides.  The  Roman  Catholics,  by  this  ca- 
pitulation, were  restored  to  the  enjoyment  of  those  liberties  in 
the  exercise  of  their  religion  which  they  had  possessed  in  the 
reign  of  King  Charles  the  Second.  All  persons  were  indulged 
with  free  leave  to  remove  with  their  families  and  effects  to  any 
other  country,  except  England  and  Scotland.  In  consequence 
of  this,  above  fourteen  thousand  of  those  who  had  fought  for 
King  James  went  over  into  France,  having  transports  provided 
by  government  for  conveying  them  thither. 


ACCESSION   OF  WILLIAM   III.  343 

James  was  now  reduced  to  the  lowest  state  of  despondence  ;  his 
designs  upon  England  were  quite  frustrated,  so  that  nothing 
was  left  his  friends  but  the  hopes  of  assassinating  the  monarch 
on  the  throne,  (a.  D.  1692.)  These  base  attempts,  as  barbarous 
as  they  were  useless,  were  not  entirely  disagreeable  to  the  tem- 
per of  James.  It  is  said  he  encouraged  and  proposed  them  ; 
but  they  all  proved  unserviceable  to  his  cause,  and  only  ended 
in  the  destruction  of  the  undertakers.  From  that  time  till  he 
died,  which  was  about  seven  years,  he  continued  to  reside  at 
St.  Germains,  a  pensioner  on  the  bounty  of  Louis,  and  assisted 
by  occasional  liberalities  from  his  daughter  and  friends  in  Eng- 
land. He  died  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  September,  in  the  year 
1700,  after  having  laboured  under  a  tedious  sickness ;  and 
many  miracles,  as  the  people  thought,  were  wrought  at  his 
tomb.  Indeed,  the  latter  part  of  his  life  was  calculated  to  in- 
spire the  superstitious  with  reverence  for  his  piety.  He  sub- 
jected himself  to  acts  of  uncommon  penance  and  mortification. 
He  frequently  visited  the  poor  monks  of  La  Trappe,  who  were 
edified  by  his  humble  and  pious  deportment.  His  pride  and 
arbitrary  temper  seemed  to  have  vanished  with  his  greatness  ; 
he  became  affable,  kind,  and  easy  to  all  his  dependants  ;  and 
at  his  last  illness  conjured  his  son  to  prefer  religion  to  every 
worldly  advantage — a  counsel  which  that  prince  strictly  obeyed. 
He  died  with  great  marks  of  devotion,  and  was  interred,  at  his 
own  request,  in  the  church  of  the  English  Benedictines  at  Paris, 
without  any  funeral  solemnity. 

William,  upon  accepting  of  the  crown,  was  resolved  to  pre- 
serve, as  much  as  he  was  able,  that  share  of  prerogative  which 
still  was  left  him.  But  at  length  he  became  fatigued  with  op- 
posing the  laws  which  parliament  every  day  were  laying  round 
his  authority,  and  gave  up  the  contest.  He  admitted  every 
restraint  upon  the  prerogative  in  England,  upon  condition  of 
being  properly  supplied  with  the  means  of  humbling  the  power 
of  France.  War,  and  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe,  were 
all  he  knew,  or  indeed  desired  to  understand.  Provided  the 
parliament  furnished  him  with  supplies  for  these  purposes,  he 
permitted  them  to  rule  the  internal  polity  at  their  pleasure. 
For  the  prosecution  of  the  war  with  France,  the  sums  of  money 
granted  to  him  were  incredible.  The  nation,  not  content  with 
furnishing  him  with  such  sums  of  money  as  they  were  capable 


344  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 

of  raising  by  the  taxes  of  the  year,  mortgaged  these  taxes,  and 
involved  themselves  in  debts  which  they  have  never  since  been 
able  to  discharge.  For  all  that  profusion  of  wealth  granted 
to  maintain  the  imaginary  balance  of  Europe,  England  received 
in  return  the  empty  reward  of  military  glory  in  Flanders,  and 
the  consciousness  of  having  given  their  allies,  particularly  the 
Dutch,  frequent  opportunities  of  being  ungrateful. 

The  war  with  France  continued  during  the  greatest  part  of 
this  king's  reign  ;  but  at  length  the  treaty  of  Ryswick  (a.  d. 
1697)  put  an  end  to  those  contentions,  in  which  England  had 
engaged  without  policy  and  came  off  without  advantage. 

In  the  general  pacification,  her  interests  seemed  entirely  de- 
serted ;  and  for  all  the  treasures  she  had  sent  to  the  continent, 
and  all  the  blood  which  she  had  shed  there,  the  only  equivalent 
she  received  was  an  acknowledgment  of  King  William's  title 
from  the  king  of  France. 

William  was  naturally  of  a  very  feeble  constitution  ;  and  it 
was  by  this  time  almost  exhausted  by  a  series  of  continual  dis- 
quietude and  action.  He  had  endeavoured  to  repair  his  consti- 
tution, or  at  least  to  conceal  its  decays,  by  exercise  and  riding. 
On  the  twenty-first  day  of  February,  in  riding  to  Hampton- 
court  from  Kensington,  his  horse  fell  under  him,  and  he  was 
thrown  with  such  violence  that  his  collar-bone  was  fractured. 
His  attendants  conveyed  him  to  the  palace  at  Hampton-court, 
where  the  fracture  was  reduced,  and  in  the  evening  he  returned  to 
Kensington  in  his  coach.  The  jolting  of  the  carriage  disunited 
the  fracture  once  more,  and  the  bones  were  again  replaced,  under 
Bidloo,  his  physician.  This  in  a  robust  constitution  would 
have  been  a  trifling  misfortune  ;  but  in  him  it  was  fatal.  For 
some  time  he  appeared  in  a  fair  way  of  recovery ;  but,  falling 
asleep  on  his  couch,  he  was  seized  with  a  shivering,  which  ter- 
minated in  a  fever  and  diarrhoea,  which  soon  became  dangerous 
and  desperate.  Perceiving  his  end  approaching,  the  objects  of 
his  former  care  still  lay  next  his  heart ;  and  the  fate  of  Europe 
seemed  to  remove  the  sensations  he  might  be  supposed  to  feel 
for  his  own.  The  earl  of  Albemarle  arriving  from  Holland,  he 
conferred  with  him  in  private  on  the  posture  of  affairs  abroad. 
Two  days  after,  having  received  the  sacrament  from  Archbishop 
Tenison,  he  expired  in  the  fifty-second  year  of  his  age,  after 
having  reigned  thirteen  years. 


QUEEN     ANNE. 


ACCESSION   OF   QUEEN   ANNE   OF   ENGLAND. 


347 


MARLBOROUGH. 


ACCESSION  OF  QUEEN  ANNE  OF  ENGLAND. 


NNE,  married  to  Prince  George  of  Denmark, 
ascended  the  throne  in  the  thirty-eighth  year  of 
her  age,  to  the  general  satisfaction  of  all  parties. 
(a.  d.  1702.)  She  was  the  second  daughter  of 
King  James,  by  his  first  wife,  the  daughter  of 
Chancellor  Hyde,  afterwards  earl  of  Clarendon. 
Upon  coming  to  the  crown,  she  resolved  to  de- 
clare war  against  France,  and  communicated  her  intentions  to 
the  House  of  Commons,  by  whom  it  was  approved,  and  war 
was  proclaimed  accordingly. 

This  declaration  of  war,  on  the  part  of  the  English,  was 
seconded  by  similar  declarations  by  the  Dutch  and  Germans  on 
the  same  day.  The  French  monarch  could  not  suppress  his 
anger  at  such  a  combination  ;  but  his  chief  resentment  fell  upon 
the  Dutch.  He  declared,  with  great  emotion,  that,  as  for  these 
gentlemen  pedlars,  the  Dutch,  they  should  one  day  repent  their 
insolence  and  presumption  in  declaring  war  against  one  whose 
power  they  had  formerly  felt  and  dreaded.  However,  the 
affairs  of  the  allies  were  no  way  influenced  by  his  threats.    The 


348  INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   IIISTORY. 

duke  of  Marlborough  had  his  views  gratified  in  being  appointed 
general  of  the  English  forces ;  and  he  was  still  farther  flattered 
by  the  Dutch,  who,  though  the  earl  of  Athlone  had  a  right  to  share 
the  command,  appointed  Marlborough  generalissimo  of  the 
allied  army.  And  it  must  be  confessed,  that  few  men  shone 
more,  either  in  debate  or  action,  than  he ;  serene  in  the  midst 
of  danger,  and  indefatigable  in  the  cabinet ;  so  that  he  became 
the  most  formidable  enemy  to  France  that  England  ever  pro- 
duced, since  the  conquering  times  of  Cressy  and  Agincourt. 

A  great  part  of  the  history  of  this  reign  consists  in  battles 
fought  upon  the  continent,  which,  though  of  very  little  advan- 
tage to  the  interest  of  England,  were  very  great  additions  to 
its  honour.  These  triumphs,  it  is  true,  are  passed  away,  and 
nothing  remains  of  them  but  the  names  of  Blenheim,  Ramilies, 
Oudenarde,  and  Malplaquet,  where  the  allied  army  gained 
great,  but,  with  respect  to  England,  useless  victories. 

A  conquest  of  much  greater  national  importance  was  gained 
with  less  expense  of  blood  and  treasure  in  Spain.  The  minis- 
try of  England,  understanding  that  the  French  were  employed 
in  equipping  a  strong  squadron  in  Brest,  sent  out  Sir  Cloudesly 
Shovel  and  Sir  George  Rooke  to  watch  their  motions.  Sir 
George,  however,  had  further  orders  to  convoy  a  body  of  forces 
in  transport-ships  to  Barcelona,  upon  which  a  fruitless  attack 
was  made  by  the  prince  of  Hesse.  Finding  no  hopes,  there- 
fore, from  this  expedition,  in  two  days  after  the  troops  were  re- 
embarked,  Sir  George  Rooke,  joined  by  Sir  Cloudesly,  called  a 
council  of  war  on  board  the  fleet,  as  they  lay  off  the  coast  of 
Africa.  In  this  they  resolved  to  make  an  attempt  upon  Gib- 
raltar, a  city  then  belonging  to  the  Spaniards,  at  that  time  ill- 
provided  with  a  garrison,  as  neither  expecting  nor  fearing  such 
an  attempt. 

The  town  of  Gibraltar  stands  upon  a  tongue  of  land,  as  the 
mariners  call  it,  and  defended  by  a  rock  inaccessible  on  every 
side  but  one.  The  prince  of  Hesse  landed  his  troops,  to  the 
number  of  eight  hundred,  on  the  continent  adjoining,  and  sum- 
moned the  town  to  surrender,  but  without  effect.  Next  day 
the  admiral  gave  orders  for  cannonading  the  town ;  and,  per- 
ceiving that  the  enemy  were  driven  from  their  fortifications  at 
a  place  called  the  South  Mole  Head,  ordered  Captain  Whitaker 
to  arm  all  the  boats  and  assault  that  quarter.     Those  officers 


ACCESSION   OF   QUEEN   ANNE   OF   ENGLAND.  349 

who  happened  to  be  nearest  the  mole  immediately  manned  their 
boats  without  orders,  and  entered  the  fortifications  sword  in 
hand.  But  they  were  premature  ;  for  the  Spaniards  sprung  a 
mine,  by  which  two  lieutenants  and  about  one  hundred  men 
were  killed  or  wounded.  Nevertheless,  the  two  captains,  Hicks 
and  Jumper,  took  possession  of  a  platform,  and  kept  their 
ground  until  they  were  sustained  by  Captain  Whitaker  and  the 
rest  of  the  seamen,  who  took  a  redoubt  between  the  mole  and 
the  town  by  storm.  Then  the  governor  capitulated,  and  the 
prince  of  Hesse  entered  the  place,  amazed  at  the  success  of  the 
attempt,  considering  the  strength  of  the  fortifications.  "When 
the  news  of  this  conquest  was  brought  to  England,  it  was  for 
some  time  in  debate  whether  it  was  a  capture  worth  thanking 
the  admiral  for.  It  was  at  last  considered  as  unworthy  public 
gratitude ;  and,  while  the  duke  of  Marlborough  was  extolled  for 
useless  services,  Sir  George  Rooke  was  left  to  neglect,  and  soon 
displaced  from  his  command  for  having  so  essentially  served  his 
country.  A  striking  instance,  that,  even  in  the  most  enlight- 
ened age,  popular  applause  is  most  usually  misplaced.  Gibral- 
tar has  ever  since  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  English, 
and  continues  of  the  utmost  use  in  refitting  that  part  of  the 
navy  destined  to  annoy  an  enemy,  or  protect  their  trade  in  the 
Mediterranean.  Here  the  English  have  a  repository  capable 
of  containing  all  thing  necessary  for  the  repairing  of  fleets  or 
the  equipment  of  armies. 

While  the  English  were  thus  victorious  by  land  and  sea,  a 
new  scene  of  contention  was  opened  on  the  side  of  Spain,  where 
the  ambition  of  the  European  princes  exerted  itself  with  the 
same  fury  that  had  filled  the  rest  of  the  continent.  Philip  the 
Fourth,  grandson  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  had  been  placed 
upon  the  throne  of  that  kingdom,  and  had  been  received  with 
the  joyful  concurrence  of  the  greatest  part  of  his  subjects.  He 
had  also  been  nominated  successor  to  the  crown  by  the  late  king 
of  Spain's  will.  But,  in  a  former  treaty  among  the  powers  of 
Europe,  Charles,  son  of  the  emperor  of  Germany,  was  ap- 
pointed heir  to  that  crown ;  and  this  treaty  had  been  guaran- 
tied by  France  herself,  though  she  now  resolved  to  reverse  that 
consent  in  favour  of  a  descendant  of  the  house  of  Bourbon. 
Charles  was  still  farther  led  on  to  put  in  for  the  crown  of  Spain 
by  the  invitations  of  the  Catalonians,  who  declared  in  his  fa- 

2E 


350 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


vour,  and  by  the  assistance  of  the  English  and  the  Portuguese, 
who  promised  to  arm  in  his  cause.  He  was  furnished  with  two 
hundred  transports,  thirty  ships  of  war,  and  nine  thousand 
men,  for  the  conquest  of  that  extensive  empire.  But  the  earl 
of  Peterborough,  a  man  of  romantic  bravery,  offered  to  conduct 
them  ;  and  his  single  service  was  thought  equivalent  to  armies. 
The  earl  of  Peterborough  was  one  of  the  most  singular  and 
extraordinary  men  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  When  yet 
but  fifteen,  he  fought  against  the  Moors  in  Africa  ;  at  twenty 
he  assisted  in  compassing  the  revolution,  and  he  now  carried 
on  the  war  in  Spain  almost  at  his  own  expense  ;  his  friendship 
for  the  duke  Charles  being  one  of  his  chief  motives  to  this 
great  undertaking.  He  was  deformed  in  his  person  ;  but  of  a 
mind  the  most  generous,  honourable,  and  active.  His  first  at- 
tempt upon  landing  in  Spain  was  the  taking  of  Barcelona,  a 
strong  city,  with  a  garrison  of  five  thousand  men,  while  the 
whole  army  amounted  to  little  more  than  nine  thousand.  The 
prince  of  Hesse  was  killed  in  this  action. 


DEATH    OF    THE    PRINCE   OF    HESSE    AT    BARCELONA. 

These  successes,  however,  were  but  of  short  continuance ; 
Peterborough  being  recalled,  and  the  army  under  Charles  being 
commanded  by  the  lord  Galway.  This  nobleman,  having  re- 
ceived intelligence  that  the  enemy,  under  the  command  of  the 
duke  of  Berwick,  was  posted  near  the  town  of  Almanza,  he 
advanced  thither  to  give  him  battle.     The  conflict  began  about 


ACCESSION   OF   QUEEN   ANNE   OP  ENGLAND. 


351 


two  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  whole  front  of  each  army  was 
fully  engaged.  The  centre,  consisting  chiefly  of  battalions  from 
Great  Britain  and  Holland,  seemed  at  first  victorious ;  but  the 
Portuguese  horse,  by  whom  they  were  supported,  betaking 
themselves  to  flight  in  the  first  charge,  the  English  troops  were 
flanked  and  surrounded  on  every  side.  In  this  dreadful  emer- 
gency they  formed  themselves  into  a  square,  and  retired  to  an 
eminence,  where,  being  ignorant  of  the  country  and  destitute 
of  all  supplies,  they  were  obliged  to  surrender  prisoners  of  war 
to  the  number  of  ten  thousand  men.  This  victory  was  com- 
plete and  decisive ;  and  all  Spain,  except  the  province  of  Cata- 
lonia, returned  to  their  duty  to  Philip,  their  sovereign. 


352 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


EXPLOITS   OF   THE   BUCCANEERS. 


'FTER  the  failure  of  the  mines  of  His- 
paniola,  which  were  never  rich,  and  the 
conquest  of  the  two  extensive  empires 
of  Mexico  and  Peru,  where  the  pre- 
cious metals  were  found  in  the  greatest 
profusion,  that  valuable  island  was  en- 
tirely neglected  by  the  Spaniards.  The 
greater  part  of  its  once  flourishing 
cities  were  deserted  by  their  inhabitants,  and  the  few  planters 
that  remained  sunk  into  the  most  enervating  indolence.  The 
necessaries,  however,  and  even  many  of  the  luxuries  of  life 
were  there  found  in  abundance.  All  the  European  animals  had 
multiplied  exceedingly,  but  especially  the  horned  cattle,  which 


EXPLOITS    OF  THE   BUCCANEERS.  353 

were  become  in  a  manner  wild,  and  wandered  about  in  large 
droves,  without  any  regular  owner.  Allured  by  these  conve- 
niences, certain  French  and  English  adventurers,  since  known 
by  the  name  of  Buccaneers  or  freebooters,  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  the  small  island  of  Tortuga,  as  early  as  the  year  1632, 
and  found  little  difficulty,  under  such  favourable  circumstances, 
of  establishing  themselves  on  the  northern  coast  of  Hispaniola. 
They  at  first  subsisted  chiefly  by  the  hunting  of  wild  cattle. 
Part  of  the  beef  they  ate  fresh,  part  they  dried,  and  the  hides 
they  sold  to  the  masters  of  such  vessels  as  came  upon  the  coast, 
and  who  furnished  them  in  return  with  clothes,  liquors,  fire- 
arms, powder,  and  shot.  But  the  wild  cattle  at  length  becom- 
ing scarce,  the  buccaneers  were  under  the  necessity  of  turning 
their  industry  to  other  objects.  The  sober-minded  men  applied 
themselves  to  the  cultivation  of  the  ground,  which  abundantly 
requited  their  toil,  while  those  of  a  bold  and  restless  disposition 
associated  themselves  with  pirates  and  outlaws  of  all  nations, 
and  formed  the  most  terrible  band  of  ravagers  that  ever  infested 
the  ocean.  To  these  ravagers,  however,  rendered  famous  by 
their  courage  and  their  crimes,  France  and  England  are  in- 
debted, in  some  measure,  for  the  prosperity  of  their  settlements 
in  the  West  Indies. 

Nothing  could  appear  less  formidable  than  the  first  arma- 
ments of  the  piratical  buccaneers,  who  took  the  name  of  Bro- 
thers of  the  Coast.  Having  formed  themselves,  like  the  hunt- 
ers of  wild  cattle,  into  small  societies,  they  made  their  excur- 
sions in  an  open  boat,  which  generally  contained  between 
twenty  and  thirty  men,  exposed  to  all  the  intemperature  of 
the  climate,  to  the  burning  heat  of  the  day,  and  the  chilling 
damps  of  the  night.  The  natural  inconveniencies  connected 
with  this  mode  of  life  were  augmented  by  those  arising  from 
their  licentious  disposition. 

A  love  of  freedom,  which,  duly  regulated,  cannot  be  too 
much  cherished,  rendered  the  buccaneers  averse  against  all 
those  restraints  which  civilized  men  usually  impose  on  each 
other  for  their  common  happiness  ;  and,  as  the  authority  which 
they  had  conferred  on  their  captain  was  chiefly  confined  to  giv- 
ing orders  in  battle,  they  lived  in  the  greatest  disorder.  Like 
savages,  having  no  apprehension  of  want,  nor  taking  any  care 
to  guard  against  famine  by  prudent  economy,  they  were  fre- 
45  2e2 


354  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

quently  exposed  to  all  the  extremities  of  hunger  and  thirst. 
But  deriving,  even  from  their  distresses,  a  courage  superior  to 
every  danger,  the  sight  of  a  sail  transported  them  to  a  degree 
of  frenzy.  They  seldom  deliberated  on  the  mode  of  attack ; 
but  their  custom  was  to  board  the  ships  as  soon  as  possible. 
The  smallness  of  their  own  vessels,  and  their  dexterity  in  ma- 
naging them,  preserved  them  from  the  fire  of  the  enemy.  They 
presented  only  to  the  broadside  of  the  ship  their  slender  prows, 
filled  with  expert  marksmen,  who  fired  at  the  enemy's  port- 
holes with  such  exactness  as  to  confound  the  most  experienced 
gunners.  And  when  they  could  fix  their  grappling  tackle,  the 
largest  trading  vessels  were  generally  obliged  to  strike. 

Although  the  buccaneers,  when  under  the  pressure  of  neces- 
sity, attacked  the  ships  of  every  nation,  those  belonging  to  the 
subjects  of  Spain  were  more  especially  marked  out  as  the  ob- 
jects of  their  piracy.  They  thought  that  the  cruelties  which 
the  Spaniards  had  exercised  on  the  natives  of  the  New  World 
were  a  sufficient  apology  for  any  violence  that  could  be  com- 
mitted against  them.  Accommodating  their  conscience  to  this 
belief,  which  perhaps,  unknown  to  themselves,  was  rather  dic- 
tated by  the  richness  of  the  Spanish  vessels  than  by  any  real 
sense  of  religion  or  equity,  they  never  embarked  in  an  expedi- 
tion without  publicly  praying  to  heaven  for  its  success  ;  nor 
did  they  ever  return  loaded  with  booty  without  solemnly  re- 
turning thanks  to  God  for  their  good  fortune. 

This  booty  was  originally  carried  to  the  island  of  Tortuga, 
the  common  rendezvous  of  the  buccaneers,  and  then  their  only 
place  of  safety.  But  afterward  the  French  went  to  some  of 
the  ports  of  Hispaniola,  where  they  had  established  themselves 
in  defiance  of  the  Spaniards ;  and  the  English  to  those  of  Ja- 
maica, where  they  could  dispose  of  their  prizes  to  more  advan- 
tage, and  lay  out  their  money  more  agreeably,  either  in  busi- 
ness or  pleasure. 

Before  the  distribution  of  the  spoil,  each  adventurer  held  up 
his  hand,  and  protested  that  he  had  secreted  nothing  of  what 
he  had  taken ;  and  if  any  one  was  convicted  of  perjury,  a  case 
that  seldom  occurred,  he  was  punished  in  a  manner  truly  exem- 
plary, and  worthy  the  imitation  of  better  men.  He  was  ex- 
pelled the   community,  and  left,  as  soon  as  an  opportunity 


EXPLOITS  OF  THE  BUCCANEEKS.  355 

offered,  upon  some  desert  island,  as  a  wretch  unworthy  to  live 
in  society,  even  with  the  destroyers  of  their  species  ! 

After  providing  for  the  sick,  the  wounded,  the  maimed,  and 
settling  their  several  shares,  the  buccaneers  indulged  themselves 
in  all  kinds  of  licentiousness.  Their  debauches,  which  they 
carried  to  the  greatest  excess,  were  limited  only  by  the  want 
that  such  prodigality  occasioned.  If  they  were  asked  what 
satisfaction  they  could  find  in  dissipating  so  rapidly  what  they 
had  earned  with  so  much  jeopardy,  they  made  this  very  inge- 
nious reply  : — «  Exposed,  as  we  are,  to  a  variety  of  perils,  our 
life  is  totally  different  from  that  of  other  men.  Why  should  we, 
who  are  alive  to-day,  and  run  the  hazard  of  being  dead  to-mor- 
row, think  of  hoarding  ! — Studious  only  of  enjoying  the  present 
hour,  we  never  think  of  that  which  is  to  come."  This  has  ever 
been  the  language  of  men  in  such  circumstances  :  the  desire  of 
dissipating  life,  not  solicitude  for  the  preservation  of  existence, 
seems  to  increase  in  proportion  to  the  danger  of  losing  it. 

The  ships  that  sailed  from  Europe  to  America  seldom  tempted 
the  avidity  of  the  first  buccaneers,  as  the  merchandise  they 
carried  could  not  readily  have  been  sold  in  the  West  Indies  in 
those  early  times.  But  they  eagerly  watched  the  Spanish  ves- 
sels on  their  return  to  Europe,  when  certain  they  were  partly 
laden  with  treasure.  They  commonly  followed  the  galleons  and 
flota,  employed  in  transporting  the  produce  of  the  mines  of 
Mexico  and  Peru,  as  far  as  the  channel  of  Bahama  ;  and  if,  by 
any  accident,  a  ship  was  separated  from  the  fleet,  they  instantly 
beset  her,  and  she  seldom  escaped  them.  They  even  ventured 
to  attack  several  ships  at  once ;  and  the  Spaniards,  who  consi- 
dered them  as  demons,  and  trembled  at  their  approach,  com- 
monly surrendered  if  they  came  to  close  quarters. 

A  remarkable  instance  of  this  timidity  on  the  one  side,  and 
temerity  on  the  other,  occurs  in  the  history  of  Peter  Legrand, 
a  native  of  Dieppe  in  Normandy,  who,  with  a  small  vessel,  car- 
rying no  more  than  twenty-eight  men  and  four  guns,  had  the 
boldness  to  attack  the  vice-admiral  of  the  galleons.  Resolved 
to  conquer  or  die,  and  having  exacted  an  oath  to  the  same  pur- 
pose from  his  crew,  he  ordered  the  carpenter  to  bore  a  hole  in 
the  side  of  his  own  vessel,  that  all  hope  of  escape  might  be  cut 
off.  This  was  no  sooner  done  than  he  boarded  the  Spanish 
ship,  with  a  sword  in  one  hand  and  a  pistol  in  the  other,  and, 


356  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

bearing  down  all  resistance,  entered  the  great  cabin,  attended 
by  a  few  of  the  most  desperate  of  his  associates.  He  there 
found  the  admiral  surrounded  by  his  officers,  presented  a  pistol 
to  his  breast,  and  ordered  him  to  surrender.  Meanwhile,  the 
rest  of  the  buccaneers  took  possession  of  the  gun-room,  and 
seized  the  arms.  Struck  with  terror  and  amazement,  the  Spa- 
niards demanded  quarter.  Like  examples  are  numerous  in  the 
history  of  the  buccaneers. 

The  Spaniards,  almost  reduced  to  despair,  by  finding  them- 
selves a  continual  prey  to  those  ravagers,  diminished  the  num- 
ber of  their  ships,  and  the  colonies  gave  up  their  connections 
with  each  other.  These  humiliating  precautions,  however, 
served  but  to  increase  the  boldness  of  the  buccaneers.  They 
had  hitherto  invaded  the  Spanish  settlements  only  to  procure 
provisions  ;  but  no  sooner  did  they  find  their  captures  decrease, 
than  they  determined  to  procure  by  land  that  wealth  which  the 
sea  denied  them.  They  accordingly  formed  themselves  into 
larger  bodies,  and  plundered  many  of  the  richest  and  strongest 
towns  in  the  New  World.  Maracaibo,  Campeachy,  Vera  Cruz, 
Porto-Bello,  and  Carthagena,  on  this  side  of  the  continent,  se- 
verely felt  the  effects  of  their  fury ;  and  Quayaquil,  Panama, 
and  many  other  places  on  the  coast  of  the  South  Sea,  were  not 
more  fortunate  in  their  resistance,  or  treated  with  greater  lenity. 
In  a  word,  the  buccaneers,  the  most  extraordinary  set  of  men 
that  ever  appeared  upon  the  face  of  the  globe,  but  whose 
duration  was  transitory,  subjected  to  their  arms,  without  a  regu- 
lar system  of  government,  without  laws,  without  any  permanent 
subordination,  and  even  without  revenue,  cities  and  castles 
which  have  baffled  the  utmost  efforts  of  national  force ;  and  if 
conquest,  not  plunder,  had  been  their  objects,  they  might  have 
made  themselves  masters  of  all  Spanish  America. 

Among  the  buccaneers  who  first  acquired  distinction  in  this 
new  mode  of  plundering,  was  Montbars,  a  gentleman  of  Lan- 
guedoc.  Having  by  chance,  in  his  infancy,  met  with  a  circum- 
stantial, and  perhaps  exaggerated,  account  of  the  cruelties  prac- 
tised by  the  Spaniards  in  the  conquest  of  the  New  World,  he 
conceived  a  strong  antipathy  against  a  nation  that  had  commit- 
ted so  many  enormities.  His  heated  imagination,  which  he 
loved  to  indulge,  continually  represented  to  him  innumerable 
multitudes  of  innocent  people,  murdered  by  a  brood  of  savage 


EXPLOITS    OF   THE    BUCCANEERS.  357 

monsters  nursed  in  the  mountains  of  Castile.  The  unhappy 
victims,  whose  names  were  ever  present  to  his  memory,  seemed 
to  call  upon  him  for  vengeance :  he  longed  to  imbrue  his  hands 
in  Spanish  blood,  and  to  retaliate  the  cruelties  of  the  Spaniards, 
on  the  same  shores  where  they  had  been  perpetrated.  He  ac- 
cordingly embarked  on  board  a  French  ship  bound  to  the  West 
Indies,  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  and  joined  the 
buccaneers,  whose  natural  ferocity  he  inflamed.  Humanity  in 
him  became  the  source  of  the  most  unfeeling  barbarity.  The 
Spaniards  suffered  so  much  from  his  fury,  that  he  acquired  the 
name  of  the  Exterminator. 

Michael  de  Baso  and  Francis  Lolonois  were  also  greatly  re- 
nowned for  their  exploits,  both  by  sea  and  land.  Their  most 
important,  though  not  their  most  fortunate,  enterprise,  was  that 
of  the  gulf  of  Venezuela,  with  eight  vessels  and  six  hundred 
and  sixty  associates.  This  gulf  runs  a  considerable  way  up 
into  the  country,  and  communicates  with  the  lake  of  Maracaibo 
by  a  narrow  strait.  That  strait  is  defended  by  a  castle  called 
la  Barra,  which  the  buccaneers  took,  and  nailed  up  the  cannon. 
(a.  d.  1667.)  They  then  passed  the  bar,  and  advanced  to  the 
city  of  Maracaibo,  built  on  the  western  coast  of  the  lake,  at  the 
distance  of  about  ten  leagues  from  its  mouth.  But,  to  their 
inexpressible  disappointment,  they  found  it  utterly  deserted  and 
unfurnished ;  the  inhabitants,  apprized  of  their  danger,  having 
removed  to  the  other  side  of  the  lake  with  their  most  valuable 
effects. 

If  the  buccaneers  had  not  spent  a  fortnight  in  riot  and  de- 
bauchery, they  would  have  found  at  Gibraltar,  a  town  near  the 
extremity  of  the  lake,  every  thing  which  the  people  of  Mara- 
caibo had  carried  off,  in  order  to  elude  their  rapacity.  On  the 
contrary,  by  their  imprudent  delay,  they  met  with  fortifications 
newly  erected,  which  they  had  the  glory  of  reducing  at  the 
expense  of  much  blood  and  the  mortification  of  finding  another 
empty  town.  Exasperated  at  this  second  disappointment,  the- 
buccaneers  set  fire  to  Gibraltar ;  and  Maracaibo  would  have 
shared  the  same  fate  had  it  not  been  ransomed.  Besides  the 
bribe  they  received  for  their  lenity,  they  took  with  them  the 
bells,  images,  and  all  the  ornamental  furniture  of  the  churches, 
intending,  as  they  said,  to  build  a  chapel  in  the  island  of  Tor- 
tuga,  and  to  consecrate  that  part  of  their  spoils  to  sacred  uses ! 


858  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

Like  other  plunderers  of  more  exalted  character,  they  had  no 
idea  of  the  absurdity  of  offering  to  heaven  the  fruits  of  rob- 
bery and  murder,  procured  in  direct  violation  of  its  laws. 

But  of  all  the  buccaneers,  French  or  English,  none  was  so 
uniformly  successful,  or  executed  so  many  great  and  daring 
enterprises,  as  Henry  Morgan,  a  native  of  the  principality  of 
Wales.  While  De  Basco,  Lolonois,  and  their  companions,  were 
squandering  at  Tortuga  the  spoils  they  had  acquired  in  the  gulf 
of  Venezuela,  Morgan  sailed  from  Jamaica  to  attack  Porto- 
Bello  ;  and  his  measures  were  so  well  concerted,  that,  soon  after 
his  landing,  he  surprised  the  sentinels,  and  made  himself  master 
of  the  town,  before  the  Spaniards  could  put  themselves  in  a 
posture  of  defence,     (a.  d.  1668.) 

In  hopes  of  reducing  with  the  same  facility  the  citadel,  or 
chief  castle,  into  which  the  citizens  had  conveyed  their  most 
valuable  property  and  all  the  plate  belonging  to  the  churches, 
Morgan  bethought  himself  of  an  expedient  that  discovers  his 
knowledge  of  national  character,  as  well  as  of  human  nature 
in  general.  He  compelled  the  priests,  nuns,  an$  other  women 
whom  he  had  made  prisoners,  to  plant  the  scaling  ladders 
against  the  walls  of  the  fortress,  from  a  persuasion  that  the 
gallantry  and  superstition  of  the  Spaniards  would  not  suffer 
them  to  fire  on  the  objects  of  their  love  and  veneration.  But 
he  found  himself  deceived  in  this  flattering  conjecture.  The 
Spanish  governor,  who  was  a  resolute  soldier,  used  his  utmost 
efforts  to  destroy  every  one  that  approached  the  works.  Morgan 
and  his  English  associates,  however,  carried  the  place  by  storm, 
in  spite  of  all  opposition,  and  found  in  it,  besides  a  vast  quan- 
tity of  rich  merchandise,  bullion  and  specie  equivalent  to  one 
hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling. 

With  this  booty,  Morgan  and  his  crew  returned  to  Jamaica, 
where  he  immediately  planned  a  new  enterprise.  Understand- 
ing that  De  Basco  and  Lolonois  had  been  disappointed  in  the 
promised  plunder  of  Maracaibo  by  their  imprudent  delay,  he 
resolved  from  emulation,  no  less  than  avidity,  to  surprise  that 
place.  With  this  view,  he  collected  fifteen  vessels,  carrying 
nine  hundred  and  sixty  men.  These  ravagers  entered  the  gulf 
of  Venezuela  unobserved,  silenced  the  fort  that  defends  this 
passage  to  the  lake  of  Maracaibo,  and  found  the  town,  as  for- 
merly, totally  deserted,    (a.  d.  1669.)    But  they  were  so  fortu- 


EXPLOITS   OF   THE   BUCCANEERS.  359 

nate  as  to  discover  the  chief  citizens,  and  the  greater  part  of 
their  wealth,  in  the  neighbouring  woods.  Not  satisfied,  how- 
ever, with  this  booty,  Morgan  proceeded  to  Gibraltar,  which 
he  found  in  the  same  desolate  condition ;  and,  while  he 
was  attempting,  by  the  most  horrid  cruelties,  to  extort  from 
such  of  the  inhabitants  as  had  been  seized  a  discovery  of  their 
hidden  treasures,  he  was  informed  of  the  arrival  of  three  Spa- 
nish men-of-war  at  the  entrance  of  the  lake. 

At  this  intelligence,  which  was  confirmed  by  a  boat  despatched 
to  reconnoitre  the  enemy,  the  heart  of  the  bravest  buccaneer 
sank  within  him.  But,  although  Morgan  considered  his  condi- 
tion as  desperate,  his  presence  of  mind  did  not  forsake  him. 
Concealing  his  apprehensions,  he  sent  a  letter  to  Don  Alonzo 
del  Campo,  the  Spanish  admiral,  boldly  demanding  a  ransom 
for  the  city  of  Maracaibo.  The  admiral's  answer  was  resolute, 
and  excluded  all  hope  of  working  upon  his  fears.  "  I  am 
come,"  said  he,  "  to  dispute  your  passage  out  of  the  lake,  and 
I  have  the  means  of  doing  it.  Nevertheless,  if  you  will  submit 
to  surrender,  with  humility,  all  the  booty  and  prisoners  you 
have  taken,  I  will  suffer  you  to  pass,  and  permit  you  to  return 
to  your  own  country  without  trouble  or  molestation.  But  if 
you  reject  this  offer,  or  hesitate  to  comply,  I  will  order  boats 
from  Caracas,  in  which  I  will  embark  my  troops,  and,  sailing 
to  Maracaibo,  will  put  every  man  of  you  to  the  sword.  This 
is  my  final  determination.  Be  prudent,  therefore,  and  do  not 
abuse  my  bounty  by  an  ungrateful  return.  I  have  with  me," 
added  he,  "  very  good  troops,  who  desire  nothing  more  ardently 
than  to  revenge  on  you  and  your  people  all  the  cruelties  and 
depredations  which  you  have  committed  upon  the  Spanish 
nation  in  America." 

The  moment  Morgan  received  this  letter,  he  called  together 
his  followers ;  and,  after  acquainting  them  with  its  contents, 
desired  them  to  deliberate  whether  they  would  give  up  all  their 
plunder,  in  order  to  secure  their  liberty,  or  fight  for  it  ?  They 
unanimously  answered,  that  they  would  rather  lose  the  last  drop 
of  their  blood  than  resign  a  booty  which  had  been  purchased 
with  so  much  peril.  Morgan,  however,  sensible  of  his  danger- 
ous situation,  endeavoured  to  compromise  the  matter,  but  in 
vain.  The  Spanish  admiral  continued  to  insist  on  his  first  con- 
ditions.    When  Morgan  was  made  acquainted  with  this  inflexi- 


360  INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 

bility,  he  coolly  replied  :  "  If  Don  Alonzo  will  not  allow  me  to 
pass,  I  will  find  means  to  pass  without  his  permission."  He 
accordingly  made  a  division  of  the  spoil,  that  each  man  might 
have  his  own  property  to  defend ;  and,  having  filled  a  vessel, 
which  he  had  taken  from  the  enemy,  with  preparations  of  gun- 
powder and  other  combustible  materials,  he  gallantly  proceeded 
to  the  mouth  of  the  lake ;  burnt  two  of  the  Spanish  ships,  took 
one,  and,  by  making  a  feint  of  disembarking  men,  in  order  to 
attack  the  fort  by  land,  he  diverted  the  attention  of  the  garri- 
son to  that  side,  while  he  passed  the  bar  with  his  whole  fleet  on 
the  other  without  receiving  any  damage. 

The  success  of  Morgan,  like  that  of  all  ambitious  leaders, 
served  only  to  stimulate  him  to  yet  greater  undertakings. 
Having  disposed  of  his  booty  at  Port-Royal  in  Jamaica,  he 
again  put  to  sea  with  a  larger  fleet  and  a  more  numerous  body 
of  adventurers,  (a.  d.  1670  ;)  and  after  reducing  the  island  of 
St.  Catharine,  where  he  procured  a  supply  of  naval  and  mili- 
tary stores,  he  steered  for  the  river  Chagres,  the  only  channel 
that  could  conduct  him  to  Panama,  the  grand  object  of  his 
armament.  At  the  mouth  of  this  river  stood  a  strong  castle, 
built  upon  a  rock,  and  defended  by  a  good  garrison,  which 
threatened  to  baffle  all  the  efforts  of  the  buccaneers,  when  an 
arrow,  shot  from  the  bow  of  an  Indian,  lodged  in  the  eye  of 
one  of  those  resolute  men.  With  wonderful  firmness  and  pre- 
sence of  mind,  he  pulled  the  arrow  from  the  wound,  and,  wrap- 
ping one  of  its  ends  in  tow,  put  it  into  his  musket,  which  was 
already  loaded,  and  discharged  it  into  the  fort,  where  the  roofs 
of  the  houses  were  of  straw,  and  the  sides  of  wood,  conforma- 
ble to  the  custom  of  building  in  that  country.  The  burning 
arrow  fell  on  the  roof  of  one  of  the  houses,  which  immediately 
took  fire — a  circumstance  that  threw  the  Spaniards  into  the 
utmost  consternation,  as  they  were  afraid  every  moment  of 
perishing  by  the  rapid  approach  of  the  flames,  or  the  blowing 
up  of  the  powder-magazine.  After  the  death  of  the  governor, 
who  bravely  perished  with  his  sword  in  his  hand,  at  the  head 
of  a  few  determined  men,  the  place  surrendered  to  the  assail- 
ants. 

This  chief  obstacle  being  removed,  Morgan  and  his  associates, 
leaving  the  larger  vessels  under  guard,  sailed  up  the  Chagres  in 
boats  to  Cruces,  and  thence  proceeded  by  land  to  Panama.    On 


EXPLOITS   OF   THE   BUCCANEERS.  361 

the  savanna,  a  spacious  plain  before  the  city,  the  Spaniards  made 
several  attempts  to  repulse  the  ferocious  invaders,  but  without 
effect.  The  buccaneers  gained  a  decided  superiority  in  every 
encounter.  Foreseeing  the  overthrow  of  their  military  pro- 
tectors, the  unarmed  inhabitants  sought  refuge  in  the  woods ; 
so  that  Morgan  took  quiet  possession  of  Panama,  and  delibe- 
rately pillaged  it  for  some  days. 

But  Morgan  met  at  Panama  with  what  he  valued  no  less  than 
his  rich  booty.  A  fair  captive  inflamed  his  savage  heart  with 
love ;  and,  finding  all  his  solicitations  ineffectual,  as  neither  his 
person  nor  character  was  calculated  to  inspire  the  object  of  his 
passion  with  favourable  sentiments  toward  him,  he  resolved  to 
second  his  assiduities  with  a  seasonable  mixture  of  force. 
"  Stop,  ruffian  !"  cried  she,  as  she  wildly  sprung  from  his  arms; 
"  stop  !  thinkest  thou  that  thou  canst  ravish  from  me  mine 
honour  as  thou  hast  wrested  from  me  my  fortune  and  my  liber- 
ty ?  No  !  be  assured  that  my  soul  shall  sooner  be  separated 
from  this  body:"  and  she  drew  a  poniard  from  her  bosom, 
which  she  would  have  plunged  into  his  heart,  if-  he  had  not 
avoided  the  blow. 

Enraged  at  such  a  return  for  his  fondness,  Morgan  threw  this 
virtuous  beauty  into  a  loathsome  dungeon,  and  endeavoured  to 
break  her  spirit  by  severities.  But  his  followers  becoming  cla- 
morous at  being  kept  so  long  in  a  state  of  inactivity  by  a  ca- 
price which  they  could  not  comprehend,  he  was  obliged  to  listen 
to  their  importunities  and  give  up  his  amorous  pursuit.  As  a 
prelude  to  their  return,  the  booty  was  divided ;  and  Morgan's 
own  share,  in  the  pillage  of  this  expedition,  is  said  to  have 
amounted  to  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling.  He  car- 
ried all  his  wealth  to  Jamaica,  and  never  afterwards  engaged 
in  any  piratical  enterprise. 

The  defection  of  Morgan,  and  several  other  principal  leaders, 
who  sought  and  found  an  asylum  in  the  bosom  of  that  civil 
society  whose  laws  they  had  so  atrociously  violated,  together 
with  the  total  separation  of  the  English  and  French  bucca- 
neers, in  consequence  of  the  war  between  the  two  nations 
which  followed  the  revolution  in  1688,  broke  the  force  of  those 
powerful  plunderers.  The  king  of  Spain  being  then  in  alliance 
with  England,  she  repressed  the  piracies  of  her  subjects  in  the 
West  Indies,  (a.  d.  1690.)  The  French  buccaneers  continued 
46  2F 


362 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


their  depredations,  and  with  no  small  success,  till  the  peace  of 
Ryswick  in  1697 ;  when  all  differences  between  France  and 
Spain  having  been  adjusted,  a  stop  was  everywhere  put  to  hos- 
tilities, and  not  only  the  association,  but  the  very  name  of  this 
extraordinary  set  of  men  soon  became  extinct.  They  were  in- 
sensibly lost  among  the  other  European  inhabitants  of  the  West 
Indies. 


ACCESSION   OF  GEORGE  I.   OF  ENGLAND.  363 


ACCESSION  OF  GEORGE  I.  OF  ENGLAND. 

NNE  died  August  1, 1714,  and  George, 
elector  of  Hanover,  was  immediately 
proclaimed.  He  arrived  in  England, 
September  16,  and  was  met  at  Green- 
wich, where  he  landed,  by  many  per- 
sons of  high  office  and  rank.  Among 
these  was  the  duke  of  Marlborough, 
who  had  lately  returned  to  England, 
and  whom,  both  at  this  time  and  ever 
after,  the  king  treated  with  great  dis- 
tinction. George,  at  his  accession,  was  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of 
his  age. 

George  was  a  man  of  plain,  steady  understanding,  grave  in 
his  manner,  and  simple  in  his  habits,  and  had  the  reputation  of 
being  a  sagacious  politician.  He  spoke  English  very  imper- 
fectly, and  was  too  much  of  a  German  in  all  his  notions  and 
habits  to  be  very  popular  in  England. 

George  I.  had  one  son  and  a  daughter.  The  son  had  married 
Caroline,  daughter  of  the  margravine  of  Anspach,  and  at  the 
time  of  his  father's  coming  to  the  throne  had  three  young 
daughters.  He  was  created  prince  of  Wales,  and  came  with  his 
family  to  England ;  as  did  also  one  of  the  king's  brothers,  the 
bishop  of  Osnaburg,  who  was  created  duke  of  York. 

The  spirit  of  party  still  ran  very  high  in  England,  (a.  d. 
1715.)  The  king  showed  a  decided  preference  for  the  Whigs. 
At  this  the  Tories  were  much  exasperated,  and  they  soon  began 
to  show  a  spirit  of  disaffection  to  the  house  of  Hanover.  Lord 
Oxford,  the  great  Tory  leader,  was  sent  to  the  Tower,  where  he 
remained  two  years ;  but  the  two  houses  of  parliament  disagreed 
so  violently  as  to  the  proceedings  to  be  taken  in  regard  to  him, 
that  he  was  at  last  acquitted  without  a  trial.  The  duke  of  Or- 
mond  and  Lord  Bolingbroke  were  impeached,  but  escaped  to 


364  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

France.  They  were  then  attainted,  and  their  names  were  erased 
from  the  list  of  English  peers. 

These  seventies  towards  the  leaders  of  the  Tories  excited 
great  murmurs;  and  the  Jacobites,  who  had  been  very  active 
ever  since  the  queen's  death,  made  a  strong  party  in  Scotland. 
The  earl  of  Mar  proclaimed  Prince  James  Stuart,  September  6, 
1715,  and  set  up  his  standard.  James,  however,  was  not  then 
in  a  condition  to  come  and  take  the  crown  that  was  proffered  him. 

Louis  XIV.,  who  had  given  the  Pretender  a  small  supply  of 
arms  and  ammunition,  with  the  promise  of  more,  died  on  the 
first  of  September  this  year,  and  the  duke  of  Orleans,  who  was 
regent  of  France  during  the  minority  of  Louis  XV.,  (the  infant 
great-grandson  of  the  late  king,)  was  not  a  friend  to  the  Pre- 
tender's cause. 

The  earl  of  Mar,  nevertheless,  continued  in  arms,  and  at 
length  assembled  a  body  of  ten  thousand  men,  which  was  farther 
increased  by  some  English  Jacobites.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
duke  of  Argyle,  who  was  appointed  commander  of  the  king's 
forces  in  Scotland,  advanced  against  the  rebels  at  the  head  of 
his  own  clans,  assisted  by  some  troops  from  Ireland. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Pretender's  party  in  the  north  of  Eng- 
land organized  themselves  in  battle  array ;  but  they  were  en- 
countered by  the  militia  and  other  troops  sent  against  them,  and 
were  punished  for  their  attempt.  Some  were  hanged  at  Tyburn  ; 
twenty-two  persons  were  executed  in  Lancashire,  and  about  one 
thousand  were  sent  to  the  North  American  colonies. 

On  December  22,  the  Pretender,  after  having  been  long  ex- 
pected, at  last  arrived  in  Scotland.  He  came  attended  only  by 
six  gentlemen.  The  earl  of  Mar  soon  joined  him,  and  he  was 
proclaimed  king ;  and  in  the  expectation  that  all  Scotland  would 
rise  in  his  cause  as  one  man,  he  fixed  January  16,  1716,  for  his 
coronation  at  Scone.  But  before  that  day  arrived,  he  was  so 
closely  pursued  by  the  duke  of  Argyle,  that  he  was  glad  to 
abandon  his  rash  enterprise,  and  to  get  back  again  to  France. 

The  attention  of  the  nation  was  chiefly  occupied  by  a  scheme 
called  the  South  Sea  Scheme,  (a.  d.  1720.)  It  was  principally 
contrived  by  Sir  John  Blunt,  a  busy,  speculating  man ;  and  the 
object  of  it  was  to  enable  a  company  of  merchants,  called  the 
South  Sea  Company,  to  buy  up  all  the  national  debts  and  con- 
centrate them  into  one  fund. 


RISING     OF     THE     HIGHLANDERS    IN     1716. 


ACCESSION   OF   GEORGE   I.    OF   ENGLAND. 


367 


Many  persons,  in  the  expectation  of  receiving  a  high  interest, 
advanced  large  sums  of  money  towards  this  purchase ;  but  in  a 
few  months  the  whole  was  discovered  to  be  a  fraudulent  scheme. 
The  principal  actors  in  it  were  punished  by  parliament,  and 
measures  were  adopted  to  give  some  redress  to  the  injured  par- 
ties ;  but  a  very  large  number  of  the  imprudent  speculators  suf- 
fered severely. 

The  king,  who  was  much  attached  to  Hanover,  (a.  d.  1727,) 
and  had  visited  it  several  times,  set  out  with  the  intention  of 
going  there  once  more.  He  had  got  as  far  as  Delden,  a  small 
town  near  the  frontiers  of  Germany,  when  he  was  taken  ex- 
tremely ill.  He  had  set  his  mind  on  reaching  his  brother's 
palace  at  Osnaburg,  and  ordered  his  people  to  hasten  forwards. 
But  he  did  not  live  to  get  there.  It  was  found,  when  the  car- 
riage stopped  at  the  gate  of  the  palace,  that  he  had  already 
breathed  his  last.  He  died  June  11,  1727,  in  the  sixty-eighth 
year  of  his  age,  and  the  thirteenth  of  his  reign. 


OEATH  OF  COLONEL  GARDINER  AT  PRESTON  PAN 


368 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 


ACCESSION  OF  GEORGE   II.— REBELLION 
OF  1745. 


his  age. 


HE  news  of  the  sudden  death 
of  George  I.  reached  London 
June  14,  and  George  II.  was 
proclaimed  the  next  day.     He 
was  in  the  forty-fifth  year  of 
His  abilities  were  inferior  to 
^  those  of  his  father,  and  his  temper  hasty. 
^^^^^^.tfjirt-^mi,,   He  was  simple  in  all  his  tastes  and  ha- 
bits,  and  singularly  methodical.      His 
strongest  feeling,  and  that  which  more  than  any  other  governed 
his  conduct,  was  his  preference  of  Hanover  to  England. 

Queen  Caroline  united  brilliant  beauty  to  a  strong  under- 
standing and  great  goodness  of  heart.  When  George  II.  came 
to  the  throne,  he  had  two  sons ;  Frederick,  the  eldest,  was 
twenty  years  old;  William,  afterwards  duke  of  Cumberland, 
was  only  six  years  old.      He  had  also  four  daughters. 

The  prince  of  Wales  married  the  princess  of  Saxe-Gotha. 
(a.  d.  1736.)  In  1737  the  queen  died,  and  the  king's  grief  for 
her  loss  was  sincere  and  excessive.  In  the  same  year  a  war 
broke  out  between  England  and  Spain ;  and  Admiral  Vernon 
took  Porto-Bello,  a  Spanish  settlement  on  the  isthmus  of  Darien. 
About  this  time  the  peace  of  the  continent  was  disturbed  by 
a  contest  for  the  imperial  throne,  (a.  d.  1743.)  The  emperor 
Charles  VI.  died,  leaving  an  only  daughter,  Maria  Theresa, 
married  to  prince  Francis  of  Lorraine.  The  claim  of  Maria 
Theresa  was  disputed  by  the  elector  of  Bavaria ;  and  nearly  all 
Europe  entered  into  the  quarrel.  The  king  of  France  took  the 
part  of  the  elector  of  Bavaria. 

The  king  of  England  engaged  on  the  side  of  Maria  Theresa, 
and  sent  to  the  continent  an  army  of  16,000  men,  under  Lord 
Stair,  which  was  afterwards  increased  by  an  equal  number  of 


ACCESSION   OF   GEORGE   II.— REBELLION   OF   1745.  369 

Hanoverians.  In  the  cause  of  Maria  Theresa,  the  king  and  his 
son,  the  duke  of  Cumberland,  displayed  considerable  military 
talent ;  but  England,  in  the  mean  time,  was  suffering  by  the  pro- 
jects of  the  Pretender. 

In  the  beginning  of  1744,  an  invasion  of  England  had  been 
attempted  by  a  French  force  of  15,000  men,  under  the  convoy 
of  twenty  ships  of  the  line.  James  himself,  not  having  sufficient 
activity  to  engage  personally  in  this  expedition,  deputed  prince 
Charles  Edward,  his  eldest  son,  to  join  in  it.  But  though  this 
expedition  was  rendered  abortive,  Prince  Charles  ventured  in 
the  following  year  to  try  his  fortune  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
island. 

Having  procured  a  sum  of  money,  and  a  small  supply  of  arms, 
on  his  own  credit,  Prince  Charles  sent  to  inform  his  friends  in 
Scotland  that  he  hoped  soon  to  be  with  them.  In  June,  1745, 
he  embarked  with  a  few  Scotch  and  Irish  gentlemen  in  a  small 
frigate  ;  but  the  vessel  which  carried  a  supply  of  arms  for  the 
expedition  was  disabled  in  the  passage.  Meanwhile  the  frigate 
pursued  her  destined  course.  On  the  16th  of  July,  Charles 
landed  at  Borodale,  in  Lochaber,  and  was  soon  joined  by  a  con- 
siderable number  of  Highlanders. 

A  moment  more  favourable  for  this  enterprise  could  not  have 
been  chosen.  The  king  of  England  was  in  Hanover  ;  the  duke 
of  Cumberland,  with  the  most  serviceable  part  of  the  army,  was 
in  Flanders  ;  and  the  ministers  and  parliament  were  divided  by 
political  disputes ;  but  Charles  could  not  make  the  most  of  these 
advantages ;  his  want  of  arms,  and  the  loss  of  the  officers  who  were 
to  have  come,  but  were  prevented,  disabling  him  from  making 
any  attack  on  the  strong  English  garrisons,  which  were  in  the 
heart  of  the  country,  at  Fort  William  and  Fort  Augustus. 

The  news  of  the  Pretender's  arrival  in  Scotland  threw  all 
England  into  commotion.  The  lords  regent,  to  whom  the  con- 
duct of  affairs  had  been  left  during  the  king's  absence,  sent  to 
hasten  his  return  ;  and  in  the  mean  time  issued  a  proclamation, 
offering  a  reward  of  30,000£.  to  any  one  who  would  seize  Charles 
Stuart.  Charles,  in  retaliation,  set  the  same  price  on  the  head 
of  the  elector  of  Hanover. 

The  prince,  advancing  to  Perth,  proclaimed  his  father  king. 
His  army  still  kept  gathering  numbers ;  and,  September  16, 
he  took  possession  of  the  town  of  Edinburgh.  The  castle,  how- 
47 


370  INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

ever,  still  held  out.  General  Guest,  an  experienced  officer,  com- 
manded there ;  and,  having  a  strong  garrison,  was  determined  to 
stand  a  siege. 

Sir  John  Cope,  meanwhile,  who  commanded  the  king's  forces 
in  Scotland,  approached  Edinburgh  with  all  the  troops  he  could 
muster ;  and,  September  20th,  he  encamped  about  nine  miles 
from  the  town,  at  Prestonpans.  The  next  morning  Charles 
marched  to  meet  him  ;  and  the  half-armed  Highlanders  attacked 
the  king's  troops  with  so  much  fury  that  the  cavalry  fled  with 
precipitation.  The  total  defeat  of  the  infantry  soon  followed. 
They  fled,  leaving  on  the  field  all  their  baggage,  and,  what  the 
prince  wanted  most  of  all,  their  arms,  ammunition,  and  a  train 
of  field  artillery.     In  this  action  Colonel  Gardiner  was  killed. 

By  this  victory  the  rebels  acquired  possession  of  a  consider. 
able  part  of  Scotland.  The  castle  of  Edinburgh  still  held  out, 
and  was  blockaded  by  the  rebels.  Charles,  however,  at  the 
earnest  entreaty  of  the  inhabitants,  whom  General  Guest  had 
alarmed  by  the  threat  of  destroying  the  town,  and  indeed  by 
actually  beginning  to  fire  on  it,  raised  the  blockade  ;  that  is, 
he  ceased  the  attempt  to  take  the  castle — he  withdrew  his 
troops. 

The  popularity  at  this  time  of  the  Pretender's  cause  was 
greatly  increased  by  the  good  conduct  of  the  prince  himself, 
who  showed  himself  both  vigorous  in  action  and  prudent  in 
council,  and  bore  his  success  with  moderation.  The  king  of 
France,  seeing  that  his  affairs  were  prosperous,  sent  him  a  sup- 
ply of  small  arms,  cannon,  and  officers,  and  promised  him  that  a 
large  body  of  French  should  be  landed  in  the  south  of  England. 

On  this  assurance  Charles  passed  the  borders  of  Scotland. 
He  entered  Carlisle,  November  6th.  Leaving  a  garrison  there, 
he  marched  onwards ;  and  on  November  29th  fixed  his  head- 
quarters at  Manchester.  He  was  there  joined  by  about  two 
hundred  English  Jacobites,  and  then  proceeded  to  Derby. 

The  rebel  army  was  now  within  four  days'  march  of  London. 
Indescribable  alarm  and  consternation  prevailed  in  that  city. 
Those  who  were  in  London  fled  into  the  country,  while  those  in 
the  country  flew  to  London,  every  person  thinking  the  place  he 
was  in  the  place  of  danger.  The  king,  who  had  returned  from 
Germany  on  the  first  summons,  was  all  activity,  and  intended  to 
have  taken  the  field  in  person. 


ACCESSION  OF  GEORGE  II.— REBELLION  OF  1745.         373 

Prince  Charles's  army  was  sometimes  successful ;  but  a  final 
battle  between  his  adherents  and  the  English  army  took  place 
at  Culloden,  in  Scotland,  April,  1746. 

The  fatal  action  of  Culloden  over,  Charles,  seeing  that  all  was 
lost,  rode  off  the  field  with  a  few  followers.  These  he  soon  dis- 
missed, and  led  a  wandering  life  for  nearly  five  months,  con- 
cealing himself  in  different  parts  of  the  Highlands,  and  owing 
his  preservation  to  the  fidelity  of  the  poor  inhabitants,  who  could 
not  be  tempted  to  betray  him  by  the  great  reward  which  was 
offered  for  his  apprehension,  and  who  concealed  him  in  their 
huts  and  caves,  at  the  risk  of  their  own  lives. 

At  last  Charles,  with  a  few  faithful  friends,  found  means  to 
get  on  board  a  French  privateer.  Under  the  shelter  of  a  thick 
fog  he  passed  through  the  midst  of  a  British  squadron ;  and  at 
last,  after  many  difficulties  and  dangers,  landed  safely  at  Mor- 
laix,  in  Bretagne ;  but  so  worn  out  by  the  fatigues  and  hardships 
he  had  undergone,  that  he  was  scarcely  to  be  known  as  the 
same  handsome,  sprightly  youth,  who  had  left  France  full  of  ani- 
mation and  hope  the  year  before. 

Frightful  scenes  followed  in  Scotland  after  the  decisive  victory 
at  Culloden.  It  is  deeply  afflicting  that  the  reputation  of  a 
brave  man  should  be  sullied  by  such  dreadful  cruelties  as  must 
ever  stain  the  memory  of  the  duke  of  Cumberland,  who  com- 
manded the  king's  forces.  It  is  said  that,  in  a  district  of  nearly 
fifty  miles  round  Lochiel,  there  was,  in  the  course  of  a  few  days, 
neither  house  nor  cottage,  neither  men  nor  cattle  to  be  seen  ;  so 
complete  was  the  ruin,  silence,  and  desolation. 

The  jails  in  England  were  filled  with  rebels,  whose  trials  now 
followed.  Many  were  executed — many  were  transported  to  the 
plantations  in  America,  and  some  few  were  pardoned.  Lords 
Balmerino,  Kilmarnock,  Derwentwater,  and  Lovat,  and  Mr. 
Ratcliffe,  who  were  among  the  principal  persons  concerned  in 
the  rebellion,  were  conveyed  to  London  and  executed. 

The  rebellion  being  subdued,  the  duke  of  Cumberland  returned 
to  the  allied  army  in  Flanders,  where  the  war  continued  a  short 
time  longer.  At  length  a  general  peace  was  signed  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  October  7th,  1748. 


2G 


374 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 


MONUMENT    ERECTED    IN    MEMORY    OF    THE    PRISONERS    WHO    DIED    IN    THE    BLACK- 
HOLE,    CALCUTTA. 


FALL   OF  CALCUTTA,  AND   DEATH    OF  THE 
PRISONERS  IN  THE  BLACK-HOLE. 


N  the  death  of  the  nabob,  or,  more 
properly,  Subah  Allaveady,  who  had 
governed  with  great  ability  for 
many  years  the  provinces  of  Ben- 
gal, Behar,  and  Orixa,  the  supreme 
authority  devolved,  according  to  his 
destination,  upon  his  grandson  Su- 
rajah  Dowlah,  a  weak  and  tyranni- 
cal prince,  (a.  d.  1756.)  Equally 
timid,  suspicious,  and  cruel,  the 
new  viceroy  determined  to  take  ven- 
geance on  all  whom  he  feared,  and  to  owe  his  security  to  the 
inability  of  any  power  within  his  jurisdiction  to  hurt  him.    The 


FALL   OF   CALCUTTA.  377 

English  had  particularly  awakened  his  apprehensions  by  the 
taking  of  Gheria,  a  fortress  deemed  impregnable  in  Indostan, 
by  their  increasing  strength  in  the  Carnatic,  and  by  the 
growth  of  their  settlement  at  Calcutta. 

Other  circumstances  conspired  to  point  the  resentment  of 
Surajah  Dowlah  immediately  against  the  English  factory  in 
Bengal.  He  was  informed,  and  not  altogether  without  founda- 
tion, that  the  agents  of  the  East  India  Company  had  abused 
their  privilege  of  dustucks,  by  making  them  subservient  not 
only  to  the  importation  of  European  and  the  exportation  of 
India  goods,  but  to  the  importation  of  commodities  from  other 
parts  of  Indostan,  and  even  of  the  same  province,  to  the  great 
diminution  of  the  public  revenue,  and  in  direct  contradiction  to 
the  purpose  for  which  they  had  been  granted,  the  encourage- 
ment of  foreign  commerce.  He  therefore  determined  to  get 
those  passports  recalled  by  the  court  of  Delhi,  or  to  deny  the 
validity,  and  also  to  punish  the  abuse.  And  the  governor  and 
council  of  Calcutta,  by  refusing  to, deliver  up  to  him  a  noble 
refugee,  who  had  taken  shelter  with  all  his  treasures  within 
their  presidency,  farther  confirmed  him  in  his  hostile  resolution. 

Enraged  at  this  refusal,  though  seemingly  occasioned  by  mis- 
apprehension, the  nabob,  who  had  assembled  an  army  of  fifty 
thousand  men,  with  an  intention  of  striking  a  blow  in  a  distant 
quarter,  ordered  it  to  march  directly  toward  Calcutta,  where 
the  English,  he  was  told,  were  building  new  fortifications.  .  He 
himself  headed  his  troops,  and  advanced  with  such  rapidity 
that  many  of  them  died  of  fatigue.  Sufficient  force,  however, 
remained  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  enterprise.  After  at- 
tempting in  vain  to  oppose  the  enemy  in  the  streets  and  ave- 
nues, the  English  inhabitants  took  refuge  in  Fort  William,  a 
place  in  itself  by  no  means  strong,  and  defended  only  by  a  small 
garrison.  Conscious  of  his  inability  to  hold  out,  Mr.  Drake, 
the  governor,  called  at  two  in  the  morning  a  council  of  Avar, 
(June  19,)  to  which  all,  except  the  common  soldiers,  were  ad- 
mitted, and,  after  debating  long  whether  they  should  imme- 
diately escape  to  the  company's  ships  in  the  river,  or  defer  their 
retreat  until  the  following  night,  the  council  broke  up,  without 
coming  to  any  positive  determination.  But,  as  the  first  pro- 
posal was  not  carried  into  execution,  the  second  was  generally 
understood  to  have  been  embraced. 
48  2g2 


378  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN.  HISTORY. 

Meanwhile  the  besiegers  vigorously  pushed  their  attacks,  and 
hoped  every  moment  to  carry  the  fort  by  storm.  Filled  with 
terror,  and  utterly  unacquainted  with  military  service,  many 
of  the  company's  servants,  and  even  some  members  of  the 
council,  went  off  to  the  ships.  A  party  of  militia,  it  was  ob- 
served, that  had  conducted  the  women  on  board  the  preceding 
night,  did  not  return  to  the  garrison.  They  who  remained  in 
it  looked  at  one  another  with  wild  affright.  The  governor,  who 
had  hitherto  discovered  no  want  of  courage,  now  panic-struck 
at  the  thought  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  Surajah  Dowlah, 
who  had  threatened  to  put  him  to  death,  hurried  into  a  boat 
that  lay  at  the  wharf,  without  apprizing  the  garrison  of  his  in- 
tention. The  military  commanding  officer,  and  several  other 
persons  of  distinction,  pusillanimously  followed  his  example, 
and  accompanied  him  to  one  of  the  ships. 

The  astonishment  of  the  garrison  at  this  desertion  could  only 
be  equalled  by  their  indignation.  Nothing  was  heard  for  a  time 
but  execrations  against  the.  fugitives.  At  length,  however,  the 
tumultuous  concourse  proceeded  to  deliberation  ;  and  Mr. 
Pearkes,  the  eldest  member  of  the  council  left  in  the  fort,  hav- 
ing resigned  his  right  of  seniority  to  Mr.  Holwell,  that  gentle- 
man was  unanimously  invested  with  the  chief  command.  The 
number  of  militia  and  soldiery  now  remaining  amounted  only 
to  one  hundred  and  ninety  men.  The  new  commander,  there- 
fore, having  seen  some  boats  return  to  the  wharf,  locked  the 
gate  leading  to  the  river,  in  order  to  prevent  future  desertions. 

The  same  promptitude  and  spirit  distinguished  Mr.  Holwell's 
whole  conduct.  But  all  his  gallant  efforts  were  found  insuffi- 
cient to  preserve  the  fort.  Soon  convinced  of  their  weakness, 
and,  conscious  of  their  danger,  the  garrison  threw  out  signals 
for  the  ships  or  boats  to  repair  to  the  wharf.  That  rational 
hope  of  escape,  however,  failed  them.  One  ship  having  struck 
on  a  sand-bank,  not  a  single  vessel  of  any  kind  offered  after- 
ward to  yield  them  a  retreat.  As  a  last  resource,  Mr.  Holwell 
threw  a  letter  from  the  ramparts,  intimating  a  desire  to  capitu- 
late, (June  20 ;)  many  of  the  garrison  having  been  killed  since 
the  departure  of  the  governor,  and  more  of  the  survivors 
thrown  into  a  state  of  despondency.  Encouraged  by  this  indi- 
cation of  weakness,  the  besiegers  made  a  desperate  but  inef- 
fectual assault ;    after  which  one  of  the  nabob's  officers  ap- 


iUEAJAH     DOWLAH     AND     HIS     SONS. 


FALL   OF   CALCUTTA.  381 

peared  with  a  flag  of  truce.  It  was  answered  by  another  from 
the  fort.  A  parley  ensued ;  but  before  any  articles  of  capitu- 
lation could  be  settled,  the  troops  of  Surajah  Dowlah  forced 
open  one  of  the  gates,  and  made  themselves  masters  of  the 
place,  though  without  putting  any  of  the  garrison  to  the  sword. 

About  an  hour  after  the  taking  of  Fort  William,  the  nabob 
entered  it,  accompanied  by  his  general,  Meer  Jaffier,  and  most 
of  the  great  officers  of  his  army.  Having  given  directions  for 
securing  the  company's  treasure,  he  seated  himself,  with  all 
the  state  of  an  Asiatic  conqueror,  in  the  principal  apartment  of 
the  factory,  and  ordered  Mr.  Holwell  to  be  brought  before  him. 
On  the  first  appearance  of  that  gentleman,  Surajah  Dowlah 
expressed  violent  resentment  at  the  presumption  of  the  Eng- 
lish, in  daring  to  resist  his  power,  and  chagrin  at  the  smallness 
of  the  sum  found  in  the  treasury.  Softened,  however,  in  the 
course  of  three  conferences,  he  dismissed  the  English  chief,  as 
he  thought  proper  to  call  him,  with  repeated  assurances,  on  the 
word  of  a  soldier,  that  he  should  suffer  no  harm. 

Notwithstanding  those  assurances,  Mr.  Holwell  and  his  unfor- 
tunate companions  (whom  he  found  on  his  return  surrounded 
by  a  strong  guard)  were  forced  into  the  common  dungeon  of 
the  fort,  usually  called  the  black-hole,  about  eight  o'clock  in  the 
evening;  and  in  that  dungeon,  only  eighteen  feet  square,  were 
they  condemned  to  pass  the  night  in  one  of  the  hottest  climates 
of  the  earth,  and  in  the  hottest  season  of  that  climate.  They 
could  receive  no  air  but  through  two  small  grated  windows, 
almost  totally  blocked  up  by  a  neighbouring  building,  which 
deprived  them  of  the  common  benefit  even  of  the  sultry  atmo- 
sphere. Their  distress  was  inexpressible,  in  consequence  of  the 
heat  and  the  pressure  of  their  bodies,  as  soon  as  the  door  was 
shut.  They  attempted  to  force  it  open,  but  without  effect. 
Rage  succeeded  disappointment.  The  keenest  invectives  were 
uttered,  in  order  to  provoke  the  guard  to  put  an  end  to  their 
wretched  lives,  by  firing  into  the  dungeon ;  and,  while  some, 
in  the  agonies  and  torment  of  despair,  were  blaspheming  their 
Creator  with  frantic  execrations,  others  were  imploring  relief 
from  heaven  in  wild  and  incoherent  prayers. 

Mr.  Holwell,  who  had  taken  his  station  at  one  of  the  win- 
dows, exhorted  his  fellow-sufferers  to  composure  as  the  only 
means  of  surviving  till  morning.     In  the  mean  time,  he  ad- 


382  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

dressed  himself  to  an  old  jemautdar,  an  officer  of  the  guard, 
who  seemed  to  have  some  marks  of  humanity  in  his  counte- 
nance, promising  him  a  thousand  rupees  if  he  would  separate 
them  into  different  apartments.  He  retired  to  procure  an 
order  for  that  purpose,  but  returned  in  a  few  minutes,  with  a 
sorrowful  face,  and  said  it  was  impossible  !  Misapprehending 
his  meaning,  Mr.  Holwell  proffered  him  a  larger  sum.  He  re- 
tired a  second  time,  and  again  returned  with  the  same  woe-fore- 
boding look,  while  the  prisoners  rent  the  air  with  their  cries  to 
the  guard  to  open  the  dungeon,  and  drank  their  own  sweat  to 
relieve  their  thirst. 

"  Unhappy  men  !"  said  the  jemautdar,  "submit  to  necessity. 
The  subah  is  asleep  !  and  what  slave  dares  disturb  his  repose?" 
A  stronger  picture  of  despotism  was  never  drawn,  nor  a  deeper 
scene  of  human  misery  exhibited. 

All  sentiments  of  friendship,  compassion,  or  respect,  were 
henceforth  extinguished  in  the  breasts  of  the  devoted  prisoners. 
No  one  would  give  way  for  the  relief  of  another ;  but  every 
one  employed  his  utmost  strength  to  obtain  a  place  near  the  win- 
dows, or  to  maintain  that  station.  The  feeble  sunk  never  more 
to  rise,  and  were  trampled  upon  by  their  stronger  companions. 
The  havoc  of  death  and  the  struggle  for  air  continued  until 
morning  appeared  ;  when,  the  door  being  opened,  of  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-six  persons  thrust  into  the  black-hole,  twenty- 
three  only  were  brought  out  alive.  And  Mr.  Holwell,  and 
two  other  of  the  survivors,  were  condemned  to  farther  suffer- 
ings. They  were  sent  prisoners  to  Muxadavad,  the  capital  of 
the  province,  in  hopes  of  extorting  from  them,  by  cruel  usage, 
a  confession  of  the  factory's  hidden  treasures.  Calcutta  was 
pillaged,  and  Fort  William  secured  by  a  garrison  of  three 
thousand  men.  The  affairs  of  the  English  East  India  Com- 
pany seemed  finally  ruined  in  Bengal. 


COLONEL    CUVE. 


RECOVERY   OF   CALCUTTA. 


385 


RECOVERY  OF  CALCUTTA— BRILLIANT   SUC- 
CESS OF  COLONEL  CLIVE  IN  INDIA. 


HEN  Admiral  Watson  returned  to  the 
coast  of  Coromandel,  after  reducing  the 
fortress  of  Gheria,  the  residence  of  the 
famous  pirate  Angria,  he  was  informed  of 
the  loss  of  Calcutta,  with  all  the  horrid 
circumstances  attending  it,  and  resolved 
upon  revenge.  He  accordingly  took  on  board  Mr.  Clive,  now 
advanced  to  the  rank  of  colonel,  with  part  of  the  English  East 
India  Company's  troops  at  Madras,  and  sailed  for  the  bay  of 
Bengal.  By  a  zealous  co-operation  of  the  sea  and  land  forces, 
the  forts  of  Buzbuzia  and  Tannah  were  speedily  reduced.  The 
town  of  Calcutta  was  recovered,  and  the  English  colours  being 
once  more  hoisted  on  Fort  William,  Mr.  Drake,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  council,  who  had  hitherto  remained  on  board  the 
ships  in  the  river,  were  again  put  in  possession  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

Not  satisfied  with  this  success,  the  British  commanders  made 
themselves  masters  also  of  the  large  town  of  Hoogly,  where 
the  nabob  had  established  his  principal  magazines.  Enraged  at 
so  many  losses,  and  dreading  more,  Surajah  Dowlah  assembled 
a  great  army  and  marched  toward  Calcutta,  determined  se- 
verely to  chastise  the  audacity  of  the  invaders,  and  even  finally 
to  expel  every  Englishman  from  the  province  of  Bengal.  But 
he  met  with  so  warm  a  salute  from  Colonel  Clive,  Captain 
Coote,  and  other  gallant  officers,  at  the  head  of  the  company's 
troops,  reinforced  with  six  hundred  sailors  from  the  fleet,  as 
induced  him  to  sue  for  peace,  and  agree  to  such  terms  as  the 
English  commanders  thought  proper  to  dictate.  He  engaged 
to  restore  to  the  East  India  Company  all  their  factories,  goods, 
and  money,  which  had  been  seized  by  his  orders ;  to  reinstate 
49  2H 


386  INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 

them  in  all  their  former  privileges ;  and  to  allow  them  to  ex- 
tend their  presidency  over  thirty-eight  neighbouring  villages, 
conformable  to  a  disputed  grant  that  had  been  obtained  from 
the  great  mogul. 

Informed  of  the  new  war  between  France  and  Great  Britain, 
and  having  nothing  now  to  fear  from  the  nabob,  the  English 
commanders  resolved  to  turn  their  arms  against  the  French 
factories  in  Bengal.  Their  first  object  was  the  reduction  of 
Chandernagore,  the  principal  French  settlement  in  the  province, 
and  a  place  of  great  strength,  situated  a  little  higher  on  the 
river  Hoogly  than  Calcutta.  In  the  expedition  against  this 
town  and  fort,  Colonel  Clive  commanded  seven  hundred  Euro- 
pean troops,  and  sixteen  hundred  sepoys,  or  soldiers  of  the 
country,  habituated  to  the  use  of  fire-arms.  The  squadron, 
consisting  of  three  sail  of  the  line  and  a  sloop  of  war,  was 
conducted  by  the  admirals  Watson  and  Pocock.  The  place  was 
defended  by  six  hundred  Europeans  and  three  hundred  sepoys, 
who  gallantly  disputed  every  post.  But  so  powerful  was  the 
cannonade  from  the  ships,  as  soon  as  they  could  bring  their 
guns  to  bear  upon  the  works,  and  from  two  batteries,  mounted 
with  twenty-four  pounders,  that  assailed  with  a  cross-fire  the 
two  bastions  of  the  fort  against  which  the  men-of-war  laid  their 
broadsides,  that  the  garrison  was  obliged  to  surrender,  after  a 
short  but  vigorous  conflict  of  three  hours. 

As  conquest  naturally  expands  the  views  of  the  conqueror, 
Clive,  who  was  formed  for  vast  undertakings,  no  sooner 
found  himself  in  possession  of  Chandernagore,  than  he  con- 
ceived the  design  of  humbling  still  farther  the  nabob  of  Ben- 
gal, and  of  advancing  to  a  yet  greater  height  the  interests 
of  the  English  East  India  Company.  And  the  conduct  of 
that  prince  furnished  him  with  many  pretexts  for  renewing 
hostilities. 

Surajah  Dowlah  was  backward  in  fulfilling  the  treaty  he  had 
lately  concluded  with  the  company.  He  attempted  to  evade 
the  execution  of  the  chief  articles  of  it ;  and  he  had  entered 
into  secret  intrigues  with  the  French,  to  whom  he  seemed  dis- 
posed to  afford  protection  in  return  for  support.  The  English 
colonel,  therefore,  resolved  to  compel  him  to  perform  his  stipu- 
lations, and,  in  case  of  refusal,  to  chastise  him  for  his  breach 
of  faith,  and  even  to  divest  him  of  his  authority.     In  the  last 


RECOVERY  OF  CALCUTTA.  387 

resolution  he  was  confirmed  (if  it  was  not  suggested)  by  a  dis- 
covery of  the  dissatisfaction  of  Meer  Jaffier,  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  nabob's  forces,  and  of  the  intrigues  of  Surajah 
Dowlah  with  the  French  officers  in  the  Deccan. 

The  measures  employed  by  Clive  to  accomplish  this  revolu- 
tion do  no  less  honour  to  his  sagacity  and  address  as  a  politi- 
cian than  to  his  vigour  and  skill  as  a  commander.  While  he 
conducted  an  intricate  and  dangerous  negotiation  with  Meer 
Jaffier  by  means  of  his  agents,  he  counterfeited  friendship  so 
artfully  as  not  only  to  quiet  the  suspicions  of  the  nabob,  but 
to  induce  him  to  dissolve  his  army,  which  had  been  assembled 
at  Plassy,  a  strong  camp  to  the  south  of  his  capital,  before  the 
taking  of  Chandernagore,  in  consequence  of  a  report  that  the 
English  commander  meant  next  to  attack  Muxadavad.  "Why 
do  you  keep  your  forces  in  the  field,"  said  he,  insidiously, 
"  after  so  many  marks  of  friendship  and  confidence  ?  They 
distress  all  the  merchants,  and  prevent  us  from  renewing  our 
trade.  The  English  cannot  stay  in  Bengal  without  freedom  of 
commerce.  Do  not  reduce  us  to  the  necessity  of  suspecting  that 
you  intend  to  destroy  us  as  soon  as  you  have  an  opportunity." 

In  order  to  quiet  these  pretended  fears,  Surajah  Dowlah 
recalled  his  army,  though  not  without  great  anxiety.  "If," 
cried  he,  with  keen  emotion,  "the  colonel  should  deceive  me!" 
And  the  secret  departure  of  the  English  agents  from  Muxada- 
vad soon  convinced  him  that  he  was  deceived.  He  again  as- 
sembled his  army  and  ordered  it  to  re-occupy  its  former  camp 
at  Plassy,  after  having  made  Meer  Jaffier,  by  the  most  solemn 
oaths  upon  the  Koran,  renew  his  obligations  of  fidelity  and 
allegiance. 

The  English  commander,  who  had  hoped  to  take  possession 
of  that  important  post,  was  not  a  little  disconcerted  by  this 
movement.  The  nabob  had  reached  Plassy,  twelve  hours  before 
him,  at  the  head  of  fifty  thousand  foot  and  eighteen  thousand 
horse.  These  forces  were  protected  by  fifty  pieces  of  cannon, 
planted  in  the  openings  between  the  columns  into  which  the 
Indian  army  was  divided,  and  partly  directed  by  forty  French- 
men. Clive,  however,  though  surprised  at  the  enemy's  num- 
bers, as  well  as  at  their  formidable  array,  resolved  to  give  them 
battle.  He  accordingly  drew  up  his  little  army,  consisting  of 
about  one  thousand  Europeans  and  two  thousand  sepoys,  under 


388  INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 

cover  of  eight  field-pieces.  The  cannonade  was  brisk  on  both 
sides,  from  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  near  noon,  when  a 
heavy  shower  damaged  the  enemy's  powder,  and  their  fire  began 
gradually  to  flag. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  circumstance  in  favour  of  the  English 
army.  Surajah  Dowlah,  who  had  hitherto  remained  in  his  tent 
beyond  the  reach  of  danger,  and  been  flattered  every  moment 
with  assurances  of  victory,  was  now  informed  that  Meer  Mur- 
deen,  the  only  general  on  whose  fidelity  he  could  rely,  was 
mortally  wounded.  Overwhelmed  by  so  weighty  a  misfortune, 
he  sent  for  Meer  Jaffier,  and  throwing  his  turban  on  the  ground, 
«  Jafiier  !"  exclaimed  he,  "  that  turban  you  must  defend."  The 
traitor  bowed,  and,  with  his  hand  on  his  breast,  promised  his 
best  services.  But  no  sooner  did  he  join  his  troops,  than  he 
sent  a  letter  to  Colonel  Clive,  acquainting  him  with  what  had 
passed,  and  requesting  him  either  instantly  to  push  on  to  victo- 
ry, or  to  storm  the  nabob's  camp  during  the  following  night. 

The  letter,  however,  was  not  delivered  till  the  fortune  of  the 
day  was  decided ;  so  that  Clive  was  still  held  in  some  degree 
of  suspense  with  respect  to  the  ultimate  intentions  of  Jaffier. 
Meanwhile  the  nabob,  understanding  that  his  general  continued 
inactive,  suddenly  ordered  a  retreat.  Mounting  a  camel  soon 
after,  he  fled  toward  Muxadavad,  accompanied  by  two  thousand 
horsemen.  And  the  English  army,  having  surmounted  every 
difficulty,  entered  his  camp  about  five  in  the  afternoon,  with- 
out any  other  obstruction  than  what  was  occasioned  by  bag- 
gage and  stores — it  being  utterly  abandoned  by  his  troops, 
who  were  seen  flying  on  all  sides  in  the  utmost  confusion. 

Having  at  length  received  Meer  Jaffier's  letter,  Clive  pressed 
on  with  his  victorious  army  to  Daudpore,  regardless  of  the  rich 
plunder  of  the  enemy's  camp.  He  arrived  there  about  eight 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  the  next  morning  saluted  the  trai- 
tor, nabob  (though  more  properly  Subah)  of  Bengal,  Baher, 
and  Orixa. 

The  new  nabob  hastened  with  his  troops  to  Muxadavad, 
whither  he  was  followed  by  the  English  commander.  From 
that  city,  Surajah  Dowlah  had  made  his  escape  in  disguise,  the 
day  after  his  defeat,  accompanied  only  by  his  favourite  woman, 
and  by  the  eunuch  who  governed  his  seraglio,  having  lost  all 
confidence  in  his  army  and  in  his  officers,  both  civil  and  mili- 


RECOVERY   OF   CALCUTTA.  389 

tary.  He  was  taken,  brought  back  to  his  capital,  imprisoned, 
and  put  to  death  by  order  of  Meerum,  the  son  of  Jaffier,  an 
ambitious  and  cruel  youth,  who  was  unwilling  to  leave  any  thing 
in  the  power  of  fortune  that  violence  could  secure.  Nor  can 
his  conduct  be  blamed  on  the  maxims  of  Asiatic  policy.  His 
father's  sway,  which  otherwise  might  have  been  disputed,  was 
instantly  acknowledged  over  all  the  three  provinces  that  com- 
pose the  viceroyalty  of  subahship. 

It  now  only  remained  for  Colonel  Give  to  make  Meer  Jaffier, 
whom  he  had  seated  in  the  musnud  or  throne,  fulfil  the  condi- 
tional engagements  into  which  he  had  solemnly  entered  before 
the  English  army  was  put  in  motion  for  his  support.  After 
attempting  some  evasions,  by  pleading  the  lowness  of  his  pre- 
decessor's treasury,  the  nabob  found  it  necessary  to  adhere  to 
every  stipulation.  And  a  treaty  to  the  following  purport  was 
read,  and  acknowledged  to  have  been  signed  by  him. 

"  I  engage  that,  as  soon  as  I  shall  be  established  in  the  go- 
vernment of  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orixa,  I  will  maintain  the 
treaty  of  peace  concluded  with  the  English  by  Surajah  Dow- 
lah  ;  that  the  enemies  of  the  English  shall  be  my  enemies,  whe- 
ther they  be  Indians  or  Europeans  ;  that  all  the  effects  and 
factories  belonging  to  the  French  in  Bengal,  the  paradise  of 
nations,  or  in  Behar  and  Orixa,  shall  remain  in  the  possession 
of  the  English,  and  I  will  never  more  allow  them  to  settle  in 
any  of  the  three  provinces ;  that,  in  consideration  of  the  losses 
which  the  English  company  have  sustained  by  the  capture  and 
plunder  of  Calcutta  by  the  nabob,  and  the  charges  occasioned 
by  maintaining  forces  to  recover  their  factories,  I  will  give  one 
crore  of  rupees,"  equivalent  to  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling ;  "  and  that,  for  the  effects  plundered  from 
the  English  inhabitants  of  Calcutta,  I  will  give  fifty  lacks  of 
rupees,"  equivalent  to  six  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand 
pounds  sterling.  He  also  agreed  to  indemnify  the  Armenian, 
Gentoo,  and  other  Asiatic  inhabitants  of  Calcutta,  and  greatly 
to  enlarge  the  territory  of  the  English  East  India  Company. 
In  a  word,  the  indemnification  and  restitutions,  with  a  donation 
of  fifty  lacks  of  rupees  to  the  fleet  and  army,  exclusive  of 
private  gratuities,  amounted  to  the  enormous  sum  of  two  mil- 
lions seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  sterling.  Near 
one-third  of  that  sum  was  immediately  paid  in  coined  silver. 

2h2 


390 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


CONQUEST  OF  CANADA  BY  THE 
BRITISH. 

|  HE  war  which  broke  out  in  1755  opened  in  a 
manner  most  unfavourable  to  the  British 
arms.  General  Braddock,  who  marched 
from  New  York  against  Canada,  having  neglected  the  precau- 
tions necessary  in  such  a  country,  was  completely  surprised  by  a 
combined  force  of  French  and  Indians.  He  himself  being  killed, 
only  part  of  the  army  was  saved  by  the  skill  and  intrepidity  of 
Colonel  (afterwards  General)  Washington,  who  on  that  occasion 
distinguished  himself  for  the  first  time.  His  troops,  being  after- 
wards joined  to  the  provincial  force  under  Generals  Shirley  and 
Johnson,  repulsed  near  Lake  George  an  attack  made  by  a  large 
body  of  the  enemy  under  Baron  Dieskau.  Dieskau  was  mortally 
wounded  in  the  action,  and  was  found  by  some  soldiers  leaning 
against  a  tree  when  the  action  was  over.     Johnson,  having  ac- 


CONQUEST   OF    CANADA   BY   THE   BRITISH 


?91 


nEATH    OF    BARON    D  I  E  S  K  A  TJ. 


quitted  himself  with  great  ability,  and  received  several  wounds, 
was  rewarded  with  the  honour  of  knighthood,  and  was  long 
much  esteemed  in  American  warfare.  But  in  the  two  following 
years,  the  enemy,  headed  by  the  gallant  marquis  de  Montcalm, 
obtained  a  series  of  successes,  terminating  in  the  reduction  of 
the  important  forts  called  Oswego  and  William  Henry.  This 
last  triumph  was  stained  with  the  barbarous  murder,  by  the 
Indians,  of  fifteen  hundred  English  prisoners  ;  which  Montcalm, 
though  it  would  seem  unjustly,  was  accused  of  sanctioning. 
These  disasters,  joined  to  the  failure  of  Byng  at  Minorca,  and 
other  abortive  expeditions,  deeply  depressed  the  spirit  of  the 
nation,  and  seemed  to  sink  their  reputation  in  arms  lower  than 
at  any  former  period.  Yet  the  courage  of  the  British  lion  was 
soon  afterwards  roused :  the  public  voice  called  to  the  helm  of 
affairs  William  Pitt,  the  greatest  statesman  then  living,  and  who 
was  destined  to  raise  her  name  to  a  pitch  of  glory  before  un- 
rivalled. 

It  was  one  of  the  main  objects  of  Pitt's  policy  to  obtain  pos- 
session of  the  French  territories  in  America,  and  to  form  them, 
together  with  the  British  colonies,  into  one  vast  range  of  domi- 
nion.    He  chose  as  his  chief  instrument  Wolfe,  a  young  man 


392 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


WILLIAM    PITT,    EARL    OF    CHATHAM 


without  family  or  parliamentary  interest,  or  even  any  esta- 
blished character  as  a  commander.  He  had  served  only 
in  subordinate  situations  ;  yet  the  minister,  with  intuitive  saga- 
city, saw  in  him  the  man  best  fitted  to  lead  British  troops  to 
victory.  In  the  expedition  against  Louisburg,  in  1758,  the 
most  active  though  not  the  highest  post  was  assigned  to  him, 
and  through  his  exertions  chiefly  that  main  bulwark  of  French 
America  fell.  After  the  great  name  thus  earned,  there  could 
no  longer  be  any  objection  to  investing  him  with  the  chief  com- 
mand. 

In  1759,  preparations  were  made  on  a  great  scale  for  the  con- 
quest of  Canada  ;  comprising  twenty  sail  of  the  line,  with  smaller 
vessels  and  transports,  having  on  board  eight  thousand  veteran 
troops.  These  were  placed  under  the  direction  of  Wolfe,  who 
was  allowed  the  choice  of  all  his  officers.  After  a  prosperous 
voyage,  the  armament  on  the  26th  June,-  arrived  oft"  the  Isle  of 
Orleans.  Quebec  was  defended  by  the  marquis  de  Montcalm, 
having  under  his  command    thirteen   thousand  men,  of  whom 


i0i!p~~-rs^ 


WOLFE     ASCENDING     THE     HEIGHTS     OF     AUK  A  11  AM. 


CONQUEST   OF   CANADA  BY   THE   BRITISH. 


395 


indeed  only  two  thousand  were  regular  troops,  the  rest  being 
Canadian  militia  with  a  few  Indians.  The  attack  having  been 
long  foreseen,  full  time  was  given  him  to  intrench  and  strengthen 
his  position.  An  attempt  was  first  made  to  destroy  the  British 
fleet  by  fire-ships  ;  but  these  were  caught  with  grappling  irons, 
towed  aside,  and  allowed  to  burn  out  without  doing  any 
injury.  Brigadier-general  Monckton  then  occupied  Point  Levi, 
opposite  to  the  capital,  which  was  thence  bombarded  with 
vigour ;  but,  though  a  number  of  houses  were  destroyed,  the 
defences  remained  almost  uninjured.  The  place  therefore 
could  only  be  carried  by  storming  the  intrenchments  which  the. 
French  had  thrown  up  in  front  of  it.  This  bold  measure  Wolfe 
resolved  to  adopt,  and  on  the  31st  July  he  effected  a  landing. 
The  boats,  however,  had  met  with  an  accidental  delay ;  the 
grenadiers,  it  is  said,  rushed  forward  with  too  blind  and  impetu- 
ous a  valour ;  Montcalm,  strongly  posted  between  Quebec  and 
Montmorenci,  poured  in  upon  them  a  destructive  fire ;  the 
Indian  rifle  told  with  fatal  effect ;  and  the  assailants  were  finally 
repulsed,  with  the  loss  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  killed  and 
six  hundred  and  fifty  wounded. 


396  INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 

Wolfe  felt  this  disappointment  so  deeply  that  his  delicate 
frame  was  thrown  into  a  violent  fever ;  and  in  a  despatch  to 
Mr.  Pitt  he  afterwards  expressed  the  apprehensions  under  which 
he  laboured.  The  fleet,  his  strongest  arm,  could  not  act  against 
the  wall  of  rock  on  which  Quebec  is  seated ;  and  with  his  weak- 
ened force  he  had  to  storm  fortified  positions  defended  by  troops 
more  numerous  than  his  own.  As  soon,  however,  as  his  health 
permitted,  he  called  a  council  of  war,  desired  the  general  offi- 
cers to  consult  together ;  and,  it  is  said,  proposed  to  them  a 
second  attack  on  the  French  lines,  avoiding  the  errors  which  had 
led  to  the  failure  of  the  first.  They  were  decidedly  of  opinion 
that  this  was  inexpedient ;  but  on  the  suggestion,  as  it  is  now  be- 
lieved, of  Brigadier-general  Townsend,  the  second  in  command, 
they  proposed  to  attempt  a  point  on  the  other  side  of  Quebec, 
where  the  enemy  were  yet  unprepared,  and  whence  they  might 
gain  the  heights  of  Abraham  which  overlooked  the  city.  Wolfe 
assented,  and  applied  all  his  powers  to  the  accomplishment  of  this 
plan.  Such  active  demonstrations  were  made  against  Mont- 
calm's original  position  that  he  believed  it  still  the  main  object; 
and  though  he  observed  detachments  moving  up  the  river,  merely 
sent  De  Bougainville  with  2000  men  to  Cape  Rouge,  a  position 
too  distant,  being  nine  miles  above  Quebec.  On  the  night  of 
the  12th  of  September,  in  deep  silence,  the  troops  were  em- 
barked and  conveyed  in  two  divisions  to  the  place  now  named 
Wolfe's  Cove.  The  precipice  here  was  so  steep,  that  even  the 
general  for  a  moment  doubted  the  possibility  of  scaling  it ;  but 
Fraser's  Highlanders,  grasping  the  bushes  which  grew  on  its 
face,  soon  reached  the  summit,  and  in  a  short  time  he  had  his 
whole  army  drawn  up  in  regular  order  on  the  plains  above. 
Montcalm,  struck  by  this  unexpected  intelligence,  at  once  con- 
cluded that,  unless  the  English  could  be  driven  from  this  position, 
Quebec  was  lost ;  and,  hoping  probably  that  only  a  detachment 
had  yet  reached  it,  pushed  forward  at  once  to  the  attack.  About 
fifteen  hundred  light  infantry  and  Indians  arrived  first,  and  began 
a  desultory  fire  from  among  the  bushes  ;  but  the  British  reserved 
their  shot  for  the  main  body,  which  was  seen  advancing  behind. 
They  came  forward  in  good  order,  and  commenced  a  brisk  at- 
tack ;  yet  no  general  fire  was  opened  in  return  till  they  were 
within  forty  yards,  when  it  could  be  followed  up  by  the  bayonet. 
The  first  volley  was  decisive ;   Wolfe  and  Montcalm  both  fell 


DEATH     OF     GENERAL     WOLFE. 


CONQUEST   OF   CANADA   BY   THE   BRITISH.  399 

almost  at  the  same  moment ;  the  French  instantly  gave  way  in 
every  quarter ;  and  repeated  charges,  in  which  the  Highland 
broadsword  was  powerfully  wielded,  soon  completed  the  victory. 
As  soon  as  Wolfe  received  his  mortal  wound,  he  said,  "  Support 
me  !  let  not  my  brave  soldiers  see  me  drop."  He  was  carried 
to  some  distance  in  the  rear, — and  hearing  the  cry  u  They  run  !" 
he  asked  "  Who  run?"  Being  told  "  The  enemy,"  he  gave  some 
short  directions,  and  then  said :  "  Now,  God  be  praised,  I  die 
happy  !"  We  cannot  forbear  quoting  the  simple  and  feeling 
observations  of  General  Townsend  respecting  his  heroic  friend, 
whose  fate  threw  so  affecting  a  lustre  on  this  memorable  victory : 
» I  am  not  ashamed  to  own  to  you,  that  my  heart  does  not  exult 
in  the  midst  of  this  success.  I  have  lost  but  a  friend  in  General 
Wolfe  ;  our  country  has  lost  a  sure  support  and  a  perpetual  ho- 
nour. If  the  world  were  sensible  at  how  dear  a  price  we  have 
purchased  Quebec  in  his  death,  it  would  damp  the  public  joy. 
Our  best  consolation  is,  that  Providence  seemed  not  to  promise 
that  he  should  remain  long  among  us.  He  was  himself  sensible 
of  the  weakness  of  his  constitution,  and  determined  to  crowd 
into  a  few  years  actions  that  would  have  adorned  length  of  life." 

The  battle  had  scarcely  closed  when  De  Bougainville  appeared 
in  the  rear,  but,  on  seeing  the  fortune  of  the  day,  immediately 
retreated.  On  the  17th  a  flag  of  truce  came  out,  and  on  the 
18th  a  capitulation  was  concluded  on  honourable  terms  to  the 
French,  who  were  not  made  prisoners,  but  conveyed  home  to 
their  native  country. 

Canada  was  not  yet  conquered.  General  Amherst,  indeed, 
marching  from  New  York  with  a  large  force,  had  reduced  the 
strong  posts  of  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point ;  while  General 
Prideaux,  aided  by  Sir  William  Johnson  with  a  body  of  Indians, 
had  taken  Niagara.  But  the  winter  arrested  their  farther  ad- 
vance ;  and  General  De  Levi,  who  had  assembled  at  Montreal 
upwards  of  10,000  men,  conceived  the  design  of  recapturing 
Quebec  in  the  spring,  before  it  could  obtain  succours,  either  by 
sea  or  land.  Being  baffled  in  his  projects  to  carry  it  by  a  coup 
de  main,  he  landed  his  army  on  the  27th  April,  1760,  advanced 
to  the  heights  of  Abraham,  and  prepared  to  carry  on  a  regular 
siege.  General  Murray  had  been  left  with  a  garrison  of  G000 
men ;  but  a  severe  attack  of  scurvy  had  reduced  to  half  that 
number  those  who  were  capable  of  bearing  arms.     This  officer, 


400  INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

fearing  that  the  place  was  unfit  to  stand  a  siege,  and  hoping 
much  from  the  bravery  of  his  troops,  attacked  the  enemy  on  the 
28th  April,  at  Sillery;  but,  being  overpowered  by  superior 
numbers,  he  was  defeated  with  great  loss.  If  guilty  here  of  any 
rashness,  he  atoned  for  it  by  the  activity  with  which  he  placed 
Quebec  in  a  state  of  defence,  and  held  out  the  town  till  the  15th 
May,  when  a  fleet,  under  Admiral  Swanton,  arrived  and  raised 
the  siege.  The  French  army  then  concentrated  itself  in  Mon- 
treal, where  the  marquis  De  Vaudreuil  made  an  attempt  to 
maintain  his  ground  ;  but  being  enclosed  by  the  forces  under 
General  Amherst,  and  by  those  from  Quebec  and  Niagara,  he 
found  himself  obliged,  on  the  8th  September,  1760,  to  sign  a 
capitulation,  by  which  that  city  and  the  whole  of  Canada  were 
transferred  to  British  dominion.  He  obtained  liberal  stipulations 
for  the  good  treatment  of  the  inhabitants,  and  particularly  the 
free  exercise  of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  the  preservation  of  the 
property  belonging  to  the  religious  communities.  He  even  de- 
manded that  the  bishop  should  continue  to  be  appointed  by  the 
French  monarch,  but  this  was  of  course  refused.  The  possession 
of  Canada,  as  well  as  of  all  the  adjoining  countries,  was  confirmed 
to  Britain  by  the  peace  of  Paris,  signed  on  the  10th  February, 
1763. 


THE   FIRST   SILESIAN   WAR. 


403 


FREDERICK    THE    GREAT. 


THE   FIRST   SILESIAN   WAR. 


HE  conduct  of  Frederick  the  Great  in 
his  attack  upon  Silesia  is  universally 
reprobated  by  historians.  Being  left 
by  his  father,  at  his  decease,  in  posses- 
sion of  a  well-disciplined  army,  he 
trumped  up  some  obsolete  claims  of 
the  house  of  Brandenburg  as  a  pre- 
text for  what  was,  in  fact,  an  unprin- 
cipled robbery.  His  prosecution  of 
the  war  is  thus  characterized  by  Ma- 
caulay : — 

Without  any  declaration  of  war, 
without  any  demand  for  reparation,  in  the  very  act  of  pouring 
forth  compliments  and  assurances  of  good-will,  Frederick  com- 
menced hostilities.  Many  thousands  of  his  troops  were  actually 
in  Silesia  before  the  queen  of  Hungary  knew  that  he  had  set 
up  any  claim  to  any  part  of  her  territories.     At  length  he  sent 


404  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

her  a  message  which  could  be  regarded  only  as  an  insult.  If 
she  would  but  let  him  have  Silesia,  he  would,  he  said,  stand  by 
her  against  any  power  Avhich  should  try  to  deprive  her  of  her 
other  dominions  ;  as  if  he  was  not  already  bound  to  stand  by  her, 
or  as  if  his  new  promise  could  be  of  more  value  than  the  old 
one  ! 

It  was  the  depth  of  winter.  The  cold  was  severe,  and  the 
roads  deep  in  mire.  But  the  Prussians  passed  on.  Resistance 
was  impossible.  The  Austrian  army  was  then  neither  numerous 
nor  efficient.  The  small  portion  of  that  army  which  lay  in  Si- 
lesia was  unprepared  for  hostilities.  Glogau  was  blockaded ; 
Breslau  opened  its  gates ;  Ohlau  was  evacuated.  A  few  scat- 
tered garrisons  still  held  out ;  but  the  whole  open  country  was 
subjugated ;  no  enemy  ventured  to  encounter  the  king  in  the 
field ;  and,  before  the  end  of  January,  1741,  he  returned  to  re- 
ceive the  congratulations  of  his  subjects  at  Berlin. 

Silesia  had  been  occupied  without  a  battle ;  but  the  Austrian 
troops  were  advancing  to  the  relief  of  the  fortresses  which  still 
held  out.  In  the  spring  Frederick  rejoined  his  army.  He  had 
seen  little  of  war,  and  had  never  commanded  any  great  body  of 
men  in  the  field.  It  is  not,  therefore,  strange  that  his  first  mili- 
tary operations  showed  little  of  that  skill  which,  at  a  later  pe- 
riod, was  the  admiration  of  Europe.  What  connoisseurs  say  of 
some  pictures  painted  by  Raphael  in  his  youth,  may  be  said  of 
this  campaign.  It  was  in  Frederick's  early  bad  manner.  For- 
tunately for  him,  the  generals  to  whom  he  was  opposed  were 
men  of  small  capacity.  The  discipline  of  his  own  troops,  par- 
ticularly of  the  infantry,  was  unequalled  in  that  age  ;  and  some 
able  and  experienced  officers  were  at  hand  to  assist  him  with 
their  advice.  Of  these,  the  most  distinguished  was  Field-mar- 
shal Schwerin — a  brave  adventurer  of  Pomeranian  extraction, 
who  had  served  half  the  governments  in  Europe,  had  borne  the 
commissions  of  the  States-General  of  Holland  and  of  the  duke 
of  Mecklenburg,  and  fought  under  Marlborough  at  Blenheim, 
and  had  been  with  Charles  XII.  at  Bender. 

Frederick's  first  battle  was  fought  at  Molwitz ;  and  never  did 
the  career  of  a  great  commander  open  in  a  more  inaspicious 
manner.  His  army  was  victorious.  Not  only,  however,  did  he 
not  establish  his  title  to  the  character  of  an  able  general,  but 
he  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  make  it  doubtful  whether  he  pos- 


►3  S 


X 


THE   FIRST   SILESIAN  WAR.  407 

sessed  the  vulgar  courage  of  a  soldier.  The  cavalry,  which  he 
commanded  in  person,  was  put  to  flight.  Unaccustomed  to  the 
tumult  and  carnage  of  a  field  of  battle,  he  lost  his  self-possession, 
and  listened  too  readily  to  those  who  urged  him  to  save  himself. 
His  English  gray  carried  him  many  miles  from  the  field,  while 
Schwerin,  though  wounded  in  two  places,  manfully  upheld  the 
day.  The  skill  of  the  old  field-marshal  and  the  steadiness  of 
the  Prussian  battalions  prevailed ;  and  the  Austrian  army  was 
driven  from  the  field  with  the  loss  of  eight  thousand  men. 

The  news  was  carried  late  at  night  to  a  mill  in  which  the  king 
had  taken  shelter.  It  gave  him  a  bitter  pang.  He  was  suc- 
cessful ;  but  he  owed  his  success  to  dispositions  which  others  had 
made,  and  to  the  valour  of  men  who  had  fought  while  he  was 
flying.  So  unpromising  was  the  first  appearance  of  the  greatest 
warrior  of  that  age  ! 

The  battle  of  Molwitz  was  the  signal  for  a  general  explosion 
throughout  Europe.  Bavaria  took  up  arms.  France,  not  yet 
declaring  herself  a  principal  in  the  war,  took  part  in  it  as  an 
ally  of  Bavaria.  The  two  great  statesmen  to  whom  mankind 
had  owed  many  years  of  tranquillity,  disappeared  about  this  time 
from  the  scene ;  but  not  till  they  had  both  been  guilty  of  the 
weakness  of  sacrificing  their  sense  of  justice  and  their  love  of 
peace  in  the  vain  hope  of  preserving  their  power.  Fleury,  sinking 
under  age  and  infirmity,  was  borne  down  by  the  impetuosity  of 
Belle-Isle.  Walpole  retired  from  the  service  of  his  ungrateful 
country  to  his  woods  and  paintings  at  Houghton ;  and  his  power 
devolved  on  the  daring  and  eccentric  Carteret.  As  were  the 
ministers,  so  were  the  nations.  Thirty  years  during  which 
Europe  had,  with  few  interruptions,  enjoyed  repose,  had  pre- 
'pared  the  public  mind  for  great  military  efforts.  A  new  gene- 
ration had  grown  up,  which  could  not  remember  the  siege  of 
Turin  or  the  slaughter  of  Malplaquet ;  which  knew  war  by  no- 
thing but  its  trophies ;  and  which,  while  it  looked  with  pride  on 
the  tapestries  at  Blenheim,  or  the  statue  in  the  "  Place  of  Vic- 
tories," little  thought  by  what  privations,  by  what  waste  of  pri- 
vate fortunes,  by  how  many  bitter  tears,  conquests  must  be  pur- 
chased. 

For  a  time  fortune  seemed  adverse  to  the  queen  of  Hungary. 
Frederick  invaded  Moravia.  The  French  and  Bavarians  pene- 
trated into  Bohemia,  and  were   there  joined  by  the  Saxons. 


408  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

Prague  was  taken.  The  elector  of  Bavaria  was  raised  by  the 
suffrages  of  his  colleagues  to  the  Imperial  throne — a  throne 
which  the  practice  of  centuries  had  almost  entitled  the  House 
of  Austria  to  regard  as  an  hereditary  possession. 

Yet  was  the  spirit  of  the  haughty  daughter  of  the  Caesars  un- 
broken. Hungary  was  still  hers  by  an  unquestionable  title ;  and 
although  her  ancestors  had  found  Hungary  the  most  mutinous 
of  all  their  kingdoms,  she  resolved  to  trust  herself  to  the  fidelity 
of  a  people,  rude  indeed,  turbulent,  and  impatient  of  oppression, 
but  brave,  generous,  and  simple-hearted.  In  the  midst  of  dis- 
tress and  peril  she  had  given  birth  to  a  son,  afterwards  .-the  Em- 
peror Joseph  II.  Scarcely  had  she  risen  from  her  couch, 
when  she  hastened  to  Presburg.  There,  in  the  sight  of  an  in- 
numerable multitude,  she  was  crowned  with  the  crown,  and 
robed  with  the  robe  of  St.  Stephen.  No  spectator  could  refrain 
his  tears  when  the  beautiful  young  mother,  still  weak  from  child- 
bearing,  rode,  after  the  fashion  of  her  fathers,  up  the  Mount  of 
Defiance,  unsheathed  the  ancient  sword  of  state,  shook  it  towards 
north  and  south,  east  and  west,  and,  with  a  glow  on  her  pale 
face,  challenged  the  four  corners  of  the  world  to  dispute  her 
rights  and  those  of  her  boy.  At  the  first  sitting  of  the  diet 
she  appeared  clad  in  deep  mourning  for  her  father,  and  in  pa- 
thetic and  dignified  words  implored  her  people  to  support  her 
just  cause.  Magnates  and  deputies  sprang  up,  half  drew  their 
sabres,  and  with  eager  voices  vowed  to  stand  by  her  with  their 
lives  and  fortunes.  Till  then,  her  firmness  had  never  once  for- 
saken her  before  the  public  eye,  but  at  that  shout  she  sank  down 
upon  her  throne,  and  wept  aloud.  Still  more  touching  was  the 
sight  when,  a  few  days  later,  she  came  before  the  estates  of  her 
realm,  and  held  up  before  them  the  little  archduke  in  her  arms. 
Then  it  was  that  the  enthusiasm  of  Hungary  broke  forth  into 
that  war-cry  which  soon  resounded  throughout  Europe,  "  Let 
us  die  for  our  king,  Maria  Theresa  !" 

In  the  mean  time,  Frederick  was  meditating  a  change  of 
policy.  He  had  no  wish  to  raise  France  to  supreme  power  on 
the  continent,  at  the  expense  of  the  house  of  Hapsburg.  His 
first  object  was,  to  rob  the  queen  of  Hungary.  His  second  was, 
that,  if  possible,  nobody  should  rob  her  but  himself.  He  had 
entered  into  engagements  with  the  powers  leagued  against 
Austria ;  but  these  engagements  were  in  his  estimation  of  no 


52 


2K 


THE   FIRST   SILESIAN   WAR.  41] 

more  force  than  the  guarantee  formerly  given  to  the  "  Prag- 
matic Sanction."  His  game  now  was  to  secure  his  share  of  the 
plunder  by  betraying  his  accomplices.  Maria  Theresa  was  little 
inclined  to  listen  to  any  such  compromise  ;  but  the  English  go- 
vernment represented  to  her  so  strongly  the  necessity  of  buying 
off  so  formidable  an  enemy  as  Frederick,  that  she  agreed  to  ne- 
gotiate. The  negotiation  would  not,  however,  have  ended  in  a 
treaty,  had  not  the  arms  of  Frederick  been  crowned  with  a 
second  victory ;  Prince  Charles  of  Lorraine,  brother-in-law  to 
Maria  Theresa,  a  bold  and  active,  though  unfortunate  general, 
gave  battle  to  the  Prussians  at  Chotusitz,  and  was  defeated. 
The  king  was  still  only  a  learner  of  the  military  art.  He  ac- 
knowledged, at  a  later  period,  that  his  success  on  this  occasion 
was  to  be  attributed,  not  at  all  to  his  own  generalship,  but 
solely  to  the  valour  and  steadiness  of  his  troops.  He  completely 
effaced,  however,  by  his  courage  and  energy,  the  stain  which 
Molwitz  had  left  on  his  reputation. 

A  peace,  concluded  under  the  English  mediation,  was  the 
fruit  of  this  battle.  Maria  Theresa  ceded  Silesia ;  Frederick 
abandoned  his  allies ;  Saxony  followed  his  example ;  and  the 
queen  was  left  at  liberty  to  turn  her  whole  force  against  France 
and  Bavaria.  She  was  everywhere  triumphant.  The  French 
were  compelled  to  evacuate  Bohemia,  and  with  difficulty  effected 
their  escape.  The  whole  line  of  their  retreat  might  be  tracked 
by  the  corpses  of  thousands  who  had  died  of  cold,  fatigue,  and 
hunger.  Many  of  those  who  reached  their  country  carried  with 
them  the  seeds  of  death.  Bavaria  was  overrun  by  bands  of  fe- 
rocious warriors  from  that  bloody  "  debatable  land,"  which  lies 
on  the  frontier  between  Christendom  and  Islam.  The  terrible 
names  of  the  Pandoor,  the  Croat,  and  the  Hussar  then  first  be- 
came familiar  to  western  Europe.  The  unfortunate  Charles'  of 
Bavaria,  vanquished  by  Austria,  betrayed  by  Prussia,  driven 
from  his  hereditary  states,  and  neglected  by  his  allies,  was  hur- 
ried by  shame  and  remorse  to  an  untimely  end.  An  English 
army  appeared  in  the  heart  of  Germany,  and  defeated  the 
French  at  Dettingen.  The  Austrian  captains  already  began  to 
talk  of  completing  the  work  of  Marlborough  and  Eugene,  and 
of  compelling  France  to  relinquish  Alsace  and  the  three  bishop- 
rics. 

The  court  of  Versailles,  in  this  peril,  looked  to  Frederick  for 


412  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

help.  He  had  been  guilty  of  two  great  treasons,  perhaps  he 
might  be  induced  to  commit  a  third.  The  duchess  of  Chateau- 
roux  then  held  the  chief  influence  over  the  feeble  Louis.  She 
determined  to  send  an  agent  to  Berlin,  and  Voltaire  was  selected 
for  the  mission.  He  eagerly  undertook  the  task  ;  for,  while  his 
literary  fame  filled  all  Europe,  he  was  troubled  with  a  childish 
craving  for  political  distinction.  He  was  vain,  and  not  without 
reason,  of  his  address,  and  of  his  insinuating  eloquence  ;  and  he 
flattered  himself  that  he  possessed  boundless  influence  over  the 
king  of  Prussia.  The  truth  was,  that  he  knew,  as  yet,  only  one 
corner  of  Frederick's  character.  He  was  well  acquainted  with 
all  the  petty  vanities  and  affectations  of  the  poetaster ;  but  was 
not  aware  that  these  foibles  were  united  with  all  the  talents  and 
vices  which  lead  to  success  in  active  life  ;  and  that  the  unlucky 
versifier  who  bored  him  with  reams  of  middling  Alexandrians, 
was  the  most  vigilant,  suspicious,  and  severe  of  politicians. 

Voltaire  was  received  at  the  palace  of  Sans  Souci  with  every 
mark  of  respect  and  friendship,  was  lodged  in  the  palace,  and 
had  a  seat  daily  at  the  royal  table.  The  negotiation  was  of  an 
extraordinary  description.  Nothing  can  be  conceived  more 
whimsical  than  the  conferences  which  took  place  between  the 
first  literary  man  and  the  first  practical  man  of  the  age,  whom 
a  strange  weakness  had  induced  to  exchange  their  parts.  The 
great  poet  would  talk  of  nothing  but  treaties  and  guarantees, 
and  the  great  king  of  nothing  but  metaphors  and  rhymes.  On 
one  occasion  Voltaire  put  into  his  majesty's  hand  a  paper  on 
the  state  of  Europe,  and  received  it  back  with  verses  scrawled 
on  the  margin.  In  secret  they  both  laughed  at  each  other. 
Voltaire  did  not  spare  the  king's  poems  ;  and  the  king  has  left 
on  record  his  opinion  of  Voltaire's  diplomacy.  "  He  had  no 
credentials,"  says  Frederick,  "and  the  whole  mission  was  a 
joke,  a  mere  farce." 


FREDERICK     THE     GREAT     AND     VOLTAIRE     AT     SANS     SOUCI. 


THE  SEVEN  YEARS'  WAR  IN   GERMANY.  415 


[E  SEVEN  YEARS'  WAR  IN  GERMANY. 

T  was  in  the  month  of  August,  1756,  that  the 
great  war  of  the  Seven  Years  commenced. 
The  king  demanded  of  the  empress-queen  a 
distinct  explanation  of  her  intentions,  and 
plainly  told  her  that  he  should  consider  a 
refusal  as  a  declaration  of  war.  "  I  want," 
he  said,  "  no  answer  in  the  style  of  an  ora- 
cle." He  received  an  answer  at  once  haughty 
and  evasive.  In  an  instant,  the  rich  electorate  of  Saxony  was 
overflowed  by  sixty  thousand  Prussian  troops.  Augustus,  with 
his  army,  occupied  a  strong  position  at  Pirna.  The  queen  of 
Poland  was  at  Dresden.  In  a  few  days  Pirna  was  blockaded 
and  Dresden  was  taken.  The  object  of  Frederick  was  to  obtain 
possession  of  the  Saxon  state  papers ;  for  those  papers,  he  well 
knew,  contained  ample  proofs  that  though  apparently  an  ag- 
gressor, he  was  really  acting  in  self-defence.  The  queen  of 
Poland,  as  well  acquainted  as  Frederick  with  the  importance  of 
those  documents,  had  packed  them  up,  had  concealed  them  in 
her  bed-chamber,  and  was  about  to  send  them  off  to  Warsaw, 
when  a  Prussian  officer  made  his  appearance.  In  the  hope  that 
no  soldier  would  venture  to  outrage  a  lady,  a  queen,  a  daughter 
of  an  emperor,  the  mother-in-law  of  a  dauphin,  she  placed  her- 
self before  the  trunk,  and  at  length  sat  down  on  it.  But  all 
resistance  was  vain.  The  papers  were  carried  to  Frederick, 
who  found  in  them,  as  he  expected,  abundant  evidence  of  the 
designs  of  the  coalition.  The  most  important  documents  were 
instantly  published,  and  the  effect  of  the  publication  was  great. 
It  was  clear  that,  of  whatever  sins  the  king  of  Prussia  might 
formerly  have  been  guilty,  he  was  now  the  injured  party,  and 
had  merely  anticipated  a  blow  intended  to  destroy  him. 

The  Saxon  camp  at  Pirna  was  in  the  mean  time  closely  in- 
vested ;  but  the  besieged  were  not  without  hopes  of  succour.    A 


416  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 

great  Austrian  army,  under  Marshal  Brown,  was  about  to  pour 
through  the  passes  which  separate  Bohemia  from  Saxony. 
Frederick  left  at  Pirna  a  force  sufficient  to  deal  with  the  Saxons, 
hastened  into  Bohemia,  encountered  Brown  at  Lowositz,  and 
defeated  him.  This  battle  decided  the  fate  of  Saxony.  Au- 
gustus and  his  favourite,  Buhl,  fled  to  Poland.  The  whole 
army  of  the  electorate  capitulated.  From  that  time  till  the 
end  of  the  war,  Frederick  treated  Saxony  as  a  part  of  his  do- 
minions, or,  rather,  he  acted  towards  the  Saxons  in  a  manner 
which  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  whole  meaning  of  that  tre- 
mendous sentence — subjectos  tanquam  suos,  viles  tanquam  alie- 
nos.  Saxony  was  as  much  in  his  power  as  Brandenburg  ;  and 
he  had  no  such  interest  in  the  welfare  of  Saxony  as  he  had  in 
the  welfare  of  Brandenburg.  He  accordingly  levied  troops  and 
exacted  contributions  throughout  the  enslaved  province,  with 
far  more  rigour  than  in  any  part  of  his  own  dominions.  Seven- 
teen thousand  men,  who  had  been  in  the  camp  of  Pirna,  were 
half  compelled,  half  persuaded,  to  enlist  under  their  conqueror. 
Thus,  within  a  few  weeks  from  the  commencement  of  hostilities, 
one  of  the  confederates  had  been  disarmed,  and  his  weapons 
pointed  against  the  rest. 

The  winter  put  a  stop  to  military  operations.  All  had 
hitherto  gone  well.  But  the  real  tug  of  war  was  still  to  come. 
It  was  easy  to  foresee  that  the  year  1757  would  be  a  memora- 
ble era  in  the  history  of  Europe. 

The  scheme  for  the  campaign  was  simple,  bold,  and  judi- 
cious. The  duke  of  Cumberland,  with  an  English  Hanoverian 
army,  was  in  Western  Germany,  and  might  be  able  to  prevent 
the  French  troops  from  attacking  Prussia.  The  Russians,  con- 
fined by  their  snows,  would  probably  not  stir  till  the  spring  was 
far  advanced.  Saxony  was  prostrated.  Sweden  could  do  no- 
thing very  important.  During  a  few  months,  Frederick  would 
have  to  deal  with  Austria  alone.  Even  thus  the  odds  were 
against  him.  But  ability  and  courage  have  often  triumphed 
against  odds  still  more  formidable. 

Early  in  1757,  the  Prussian  army  in  Saxony  began  to  move. 
Through  four  defiles  in  the  mountains  they  came  pouring  into 
Bohemia.  Prague  was  his  first  mark  ;  but  the  ulterior  object 
was  probably  Vienna.  At  Prague,  lay  Marshal  Brown  with 
one  great  army.     Daun,  the  most  cautious  and  fortunate  of  the 


MARSHAL    SCHWERIN'S    LAST    CHARGE. 


53 


THE  SEVEN  YEARS'  WAR   IN   GERMANY.  419 

Austrian  captains,  was  advancing  with  another.  Frederick 
determined  to  overwhelm  Brown  before  Daun  should  arrive. 
On  the  sixth  of  May  was  fought,  under  those  walls  which,  a 
hundred  and  thirty  years  before,  had  witnessed  the  victory  of 
the  Catholic  league  and  the  flight  of  the  unhappy  Palatine,  a 
battle  more  bloody  than  any  which  Europe  saw  during  the  long 
interval  between  Malplaquet  and  Eylau.  The  king  and  Prince 
Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  were  distinguished  on  that  day  by 
their  valour  and  exertions.  But  the  chief  glory  was  with 
Schwerin.  When  the  Prussian  infantry  wavered,  the  stout  old 
marshal  snatched  the  colours  from  an  ensign,  and,  waving  them 
in  the  air,  led  back  his  regiment  to  the  charge.  Thus,  at 
seventy-two  years  of  age,  he  fell  in  the  thickest  battle,  still 
grasping  the  standard  which  bears  the  black  eagle  on  the  field 
argent.  The  victory  remained  with  the  king ;  but  it  had  been 
dearly  purchased.  Whole  columns  of  his  bravest  warriors  had 
fallen.  He  admitted  that  he  had  lost  eighteen  thousand  men. 
Of  the  enemy,  twenty-four  thousand  had  been  killed,  wounded, 
or  taken. 

Part  of  the  defeated  army  was  shut  up  in  Prague.  Part  fled 
to  join  the  troops  which,  under  the  command  of  Daun,  were 
now  close  at  hand.  Frederick  determined  to  play  over  the  same 
game  which  had  succeeded  at  Lowositz.  He  left  a  large  force 
to  besiege  Prague,  and  at  the  head  of  thirty  thousand  men  he 
marched  against  Daun.  The  cautious  marshal,  though  he  had 
a  great  superiority  in  numbers,  would  risk  nothing.  He  occu- 
pied at  Kolin  a  position  almost  impregnable,  and  awaited  the 
attack  of  the  king. 

It  was  the  18th  of  June — a  day  which,  if  the  Greek  super- 
stition still  retained  its  influence,  would  be  held  sacred  to  Ne- 
mesis— a  day  on  which  the  two  greatest  princes  and  soldiers  of 
modern  times  were  taught,  by  a  terrible  experience,  that  neither 
skill  nor  valour  can  fix  the  inconstancy  of  fortune.  The  battle 
began  before  noon ;  and  part  of  the  Prussian  army  maintained 
the  contest  till  after  the  midsummer  sun  had  gone  down.  But 
at  length  the  king  found  that  his  troops,  having  been  repeatedly 
driven  back  with  frightful  carnage,  could  no  longer  be  led  to 
the  charge.  He  was  with  difficulty  persuaded  to  quit  the  field. 
The  officers  of  his  personal  staff  were  under  the  necessity  of 
expostulating  with  him,  and  one  of  them  took  the  liberty  to 


420  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

say,  "  Does  your  majesty  mean  to  storm  the  batteries  alone  ?" 
Thirteen  thousand  of  his  bravest  followers  had  perished.  No- 
thing remained  for  him  but  to  retreat  in  good  order,  to  raise 
the  siege  of  Prague,  and  to  hurry  his  army  by  different  routes 
out  of  Bohemia. 

This  stroke  seemed  to  be  final.  Frederick's  situation  had  at 
best  been  such,  that  only  an  uninterrupted  run  of  good-luck 
could  save  him,  as  it  seemed,  from  ruin.  And  now,  almost  in 
the  outset  of  the  contest,  he  had  met  with  a  check  which,  even 
in  a  war  between  equal  powers,  would  have  been  felt  as  serious. 
He  had  owed  much  to  the  opinion  which  all  Europe  entertained 
of  his  army.  Since  his  accession,  his  soldiers  had  in  many 
successive  battles  been  victorious  over  the  Austrians.  But  the 
glory  had  departed  from  his  arms.  All  whom  his  malevolent 
sarcasms  had  wounded,  made  haste  to  avenge  themselves  by 
scoffing  at  the  scoffer.  His  soldiers  had  ceased  to  confide  in 
his  star.  In  every  part  of  his  camp  his  dispositions  were  se- 
verely criticised.  Even  in  his  own  family  he  had  detractors. 
His  next  brother,  William,  heir-presumptive,  or  rather,  in  truth, 
heir-apparent  to  the  throne,  and  great-grandfather  of  the  pre- 
sent king,  could  not  refrain  from  lamenting  his  own  fate  and 
that  of  the  house  of  Hohenzollern,  once  so  great  and  so  pros- 
perous, but  now,  by  the  rash  ambition  of  its  chief,  made  a  by- 
word to  all  nations.  These  complaints,  and  some  blunders 
which  William  committed  during  the  retreat  from  Bohemia, 
called  forth  the  bitter  displeasure  of  the  inexorable  king.  The 
prince's  heart  was  broken  by  the  cutting  reproaches  of  his  bro- 
ther ;  he  quitted  the  army,  retired  to  a  country  seat,  and  in  a 
short  time  died  of  shame  and  vexation. 

It  seemed  that  the  king's  distress  could  hardly  be  increased. 
Yet  at  this  moment  another  blow  not  less  terrible  than  that  of 
Kolin  fell  upon  him.  The  French,  under  Marshal  D'Estrees, 
had  invaded  Germany.  The  duke  of  Cumberland  had  given 
them  battle  at  Hastembeck,  and  had  been  defeated.  In  order 
to  save  the  electorate  of  Hanover  from  entire  subjugation,  he 
had  made  at  Closter  Severn  an  arrangement  with  the  French 
generals,  which  left  them  at  liberty  to  turn  their  arms  against 
the  Prussian  dominions. 

That  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  Frederick's  distress,  he  lost 
his  mother  just  at  this  time  ;  and  he  appears  to  have  felt  the 


THE   SEVEN   YEARS'  WAR   IN   GERMANY.  421 

loss  more  than  was  to  be  expected  from  the  hardness  and  seve- 
rity of  his  character.  In  truth,  his  misfortunes  had  now  cut 
to  the  quick.  The  mocker,  the  tyrant,  the  most  rigorous,  the 
most  imperious,  the  most  cynical  of  men,  was  very  unhappy. 
His  face  was  so  haggard,  and  his  form  so  thin,  that  when,  on 
his  return  from  Bohemia,  he  passed  through  Leipsic,  the  people 
hardly  knew  him  again.  His  sleep  was  broken ;  the  tears,  in 
spite  of  himself,  often  started  into  his  eyes ;  and  the  grave  be- 
gan to  present  itself  to  his  agitated  mind  as  the  best  refuge 
from  misery  and  dishonour.  His  resolution  was  fixed  never  to 
be  taken  alive,  and  never  to  make  peace  on  condition  of  de- 
scending from  his  place  among  the  powers  of  Europe.  He  saw 
nothing  left  for  him  except  to  die ;  and  he  deliberately  chose 
his  mode  of  death.  He  always  carried  about  with  him  a  sure 
and  speedy  poison  in  a  small  glass  case ;  and  to  the  few  in 
whom  he  placed  confidence,  he  made  no  mystery  of  his  resolu- 
tion. 

*  *  *  *  At  the  beginning  of  November,  the  net 
seemed  to  have  closed  completely  round  him.  The  Russians 
were  in  the  field,  and  were  spreading  devastation  through  his 
eastern  provinces.  Silesia  was  overrun  by  the  Austrians.  A 
great  French  army  was  advancing  from  the  west  under  the 
command  of  Marshal  Soubise,  a  prince  of  the  great  Armorican 
house  of  Rohan.  Berlin  itself  had  been  taken  and  plundered 
by  the  Croatians.  Such  was  the  situation  from  which  Frederick 
extricated  himself,  with  dazzling  glory,  in  the  short  space  of 
thirty  days. 

He  marched  first  against  Soubise.  On  the  fifth  of  Novem- 
ber, the  armies  met  at  Rosbach.  The  French  were  two  to  one  ; 
but  they  were  ill-disciplined,  and  their  general  was  a  dunce. 
The  tactics  of  Frederick,  and  the  well-regulated  valour  of  the 
Prussian  troops,  obtained  a  complete  victory.  Seven  thousand 
of  the  invaders  were  made  prisoners.  Their  guns,  their  colours, 
their  baggage,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  conquerors.  Those 
who  escaped  fled  as  confusedly  as  a  mob  scattered  by  cavalry. 
Victorious  in  the  west,  the  king  turned  his  arms  towards  Sile- 
sia. In  that  quarter  every  thing  seemed  to  be  lost.  Breslau 
had  fallen  ;  and  Charles  of  Lorraine,  with  a  mighty  power,  held 
the  whole  province.  On  the  fifth  of  December,  exactly  one 
month  after  the  battle  of  Rosbach,  Frederick,  with  forty  thou- 

2L 


422  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

sand  men,  and  Prince  Charles,  at  the  head  of  not  less  than 
sixty  thousand,  met  at  Leuthen,  hard  by  Breslau.  The  king, 
who  was,  in  general,  perhaps,  too  much  inclined  to  consider  the 
common  soldier  as  a  mere  machine,  resorted,  on  this  great  day, 
to  means  resembling  those  which  Bonaparte  afterwards  em- 
ployed with  such  signal  success  for  the  purpose  of  stimulating 
military  enthusiasm.  The  principal  officers  were  convoked. 
Frederick  addressed  them  with  great  force  and  pathos,  and  di- 
rected them  to  speak  to  their  men  as  he  had  spoken  to  them. 
When  the  armies  were  set  in  battle  array,  the  Prussian  troops 
were  in  a  state  of  fierce  excitement ;  but  their  excitement 
showed  itself  after  the  fashion  of  a  grave  people.  The  columns 
advanced  to  the  attack  chanting,  to  the  sound  of  drums  and 
fifes,  the  rude  hymns  of  the  old  Saxon  Hernholds.  They 
had  never  fought  so  well ;  nor  had  the  genius  of  their  chief 
ever  been  so  conspicuous.  "  That  battle,"  said  Napoleon, 
"  was  a  masterpiece.  Of  itself  it  is  sufficient  to  entitle  Fre- 
derick to  a  place  in  the  first  rank  among  generals."  The  vic- 
tory was  complete.  Twenty-seven  thousand  Austrians  were 
killed,  wounded,  or  taken ;  fifty  stand  of  colours,  a  hundred 
guns,  four  thousand  wagons,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Prus- 
sians. Breslau  opened  its  gates ;  Silesia  was  reconquered ; 
Charles  of  Lorraine  retired  to  hide  his  shame  and  sorrow  at 
Brussels  ;  and  Frederick  allowed  his  troops  to  take  some  repose 
in  winter-quarters,  after  a  campaign,  to  the  vicissitudes  of  which 
it  will  be  difficult  to  find  any  parallel  in  ancient  or  modern 
history. 

The  news  of  the  battle  of  Rosbach  stirred  the  blood  of  the 
whole  of  the  mighty  population  from  the  Alps  to  the  Baltic, 
and  from  the  borders  of  Courland  to  those  of  Lorraine.  West- 
phalia and  Lower  Saxony  had  been  deluged  by  a  great  host  of 
strangers,  whose  speech  was  unintelligible,  and  whose  petulant 
and  licentious  manners  had  excited  the  strongest  feelings  of  dis- 
gust and  hatred.  That  great  host  had  been  put  to  flight  by  a 
small  band  of  German  warriors,  led  by  a  prince  of  German 
blood  on  the  side  of  father  and  mother,  and  marked  by  the  fair 
hair  and  the  clear  blue  eye  of  Germany.  Never,  since  the  dis- 
solution of  the  empire  of  Charlemagne,  had  the  Teutonic  race 
won  such  a  field  against  the  French.  The  tidings  called  forth 
a  general  burst  of  delight  and  pride  from  the  whole  of  the  great 


THE  SEVEN  YEARS'  WAR  IN  GERMANY.  423 

family  which  spoke  the  various  dialects  of  the  ancient  language 
of  Arrninius.  The  fame  of  Frederick  began  to  supply,  in  some 
degree,  the  place  of  a  common  government  and  of  a  common 
capital.  It  became  a  rallying  point  for  all  true  Germans — a 
subject  of  mutual  congratulation  to  the  Bavarian  and  the  West- 
phalian,  to  the  citizen  of  Frankfort  and  the  citizen  of  Nurem- 
burg.  Then  first  it  was  manifest  that  the  Germans  were  truly 
a  nation.  Then  first  was  discernible  that  patriotic  spirit  which, 
in  1813,  achieved  the  great  deliverance  of  central  Europe,  and 
which  still  guards,  and  long  will  guard,  against  foreign  ambi- 
tion, the  old  freedom  of  the  Rhine. 

Nor  were  the  effects  produced  by  that  celebrated  day  merely 
political.  The  greatest  masters  of  German  poetry  and  elo- 
quence have  admitted  that,  though  the  great  king  neither  valued 
nor  understood  his  native  language,  though  he  looked  on  France 
as  the  only  seat  of  taste  and  philosophy,  yet,  in  his  own  de- 
spite, he  did  much  to  emancipate  the  genius  of  his  countrymen 
from  the  foreign  yoke ;  and  that,  in  the  act  of  vanquishing 
Soubise,  he  was,  unintentionally,  rousing  the  spirit  which  soon 
began  to  question  the  literary  precedence  of  Boileau  and  Vol- 
taire. So  strangely  do  events  confound  all  the  plans  of  man.  A 
prince  who  read  only  French,  who  wrote  only  French,  who  ranked 
as  a  French  classic,  became,  quite  unconsciously,  the  means  of 
liberating  half  the  continent  from  the  dominion  of  that  French 
criticism,  of  which  he  was  himself,  to  the  end  of  his  life,  a  slave. 
Yet  even  the  enthusiasm  of  Germany,  in  favour  of  Frederick, 
hardly  equalled  the  enthusiasm  of  England.  The  birth-day  of  her 
ally  was  celebrated  with  as  much  enthusiasm  as  that  of  her  own 
sovereign,  and  at  night  the  streets  of  London  were  in  a  blaze 
with  illuminations.  Portraits  of  the  hero  of  Rosbach,  with  his 
cocked  hat  and  long  pig-tail,  were  in  every  house.  An  atten- 
tive observer  will,  at  this  day,  find  in  the  parlours  of  old- 
fashioned  inns,  and  in  the  portfolios  of  print-sellers,  twenty 
portraits  of  Frederick  for  one  of  George  II.  The  sign-painters 
were  everywhere  employed  in  touching  up  Admiral  Vernon  into 
the  king  of  Prussia.  Some  young  Englishmen  of  rank  pro- 
posed to  visit  Germany  as  volunteers,  for  the  purpose  of  learn- 
ing the  art  of  war  under  the  greatest  of  commanders.  This  last 
proof  of  British  attachment  and  admiration,  Frederick  politely 
but  firmly  declined.     His  camp  was  no  place  for  amateur  stu* 


424  INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 

dents  of  military  science.  The  Prussian  discipline  was  rigor- 
ous even  to  cruelty.  The  officers,  while  in  the  field,  were  ex- 
pected to  practise  an  abstemiousness  and  self-denial  such  as  was 
hardly  surpassed  by  the  most  rigid  monastic  orders.  However 
noble  their  birth,  however  high  their  rank  in  the  service,  they 
were  not  permitted  to  eat  from  any  thing  better  than  pewter. 
It  was  a  high  crime  even  in  a  count  and  field-marshal  to  have 
a  single  silver  spoon  among  his  baggage.  Gay  young  English- 
men of  twenty  thousand  a  year,  accustomed  to  liberty  and  to 
luxury,  would  not  easily  submit  to  these  Spartan  restraints. 
The  king  could  not  venture  to  keep  them  in  order  as  he  kept 
his  own  subjects  in  order.  Situated  as  he  was  with  respect  to 
England,  he  could  not  well  imprison  or  shoot  refractory  How- 
ards and  Cavendishes.  On  the  other  hand,  the  example  of  a 
few  fine  gentlemen,  attended  by  chariots  and  livery  servants, 
eating  in  plate,  and  drinking  champagne  and  tokay,  was  enough 
to  corrupt  his  whole  army.  He  thought  it  best  to  make  a  stand 
at  first,  and  civilly  refused  to  admit  such  dangerous  companions 
among  his  troops. 

The  help  of  England  was  bestowed  in  a  manner  far  more 
useful  and  more  acceptable.  An  annual  subsidy  of  near  seven 
hundred  thousand  pounds  enabled  the  king  to  add  probably 
more  than  fifty  thousand  men  to  his  army.  Pitt,  now  at  the 
height  of  power  and  popularity,  undertook  the  task  of  defending 
Western  Germany  against  France,  and  asked  Frederick  only 
for  the  loan  of  a  general.  The  general  selected  was  Prince 
Ferdinand  of  Brunswick,  who  had  attained  a  high  distinction  in 
the  Prussian  service.  He  was  put  at  the  head  of  an  army, 
partly  English,  partly  Hanoverian,  partly  composed  of  merce- 
naries hired  from  the  petty  princes  of  the  empire.  He  soon 
vindicated  the  choice  of  the  two  allied  courts,  and  proved  him- 
self the  second  general  of  the  age. 

Frederick  passed  the  winter  at  Breslau,  in  reading,  writing, 
and  preparing  for  the  next  campaign.  The  havoc  which  the 
war  had  made  among  his  troops  was  rapidly  repaired ;  and  in 
the  spring  of  1758  he  was  again  ready  for  the  conflict.  Prince 
Ferdinand  kept  the  French  in  check.  The  king,  in  the  mean 
time,  after  attempting  against  the  Austrians  some  operations 
which  led  to  no  very  important  result,  marched  to  encounter  the 
Russians,  who,  slaying,  burning,  and  wasting   wherever   they 


54 


2l2 


THE  SEVEN  YEARS'   WAR  IN  GERMANY.  427 

turned,  had  penetrated  into  the  heart  of  his  realm.  He  gave 
them  battle  at  Zorndorf,  near  Frankfort  on  the  Oder.  The 
fight  was  long  and  bloody.  Quarter  was  neither  given  nor  taken ; 
for  the  Germans  and  Scythians  regarded  each  other  with  bitter 
aversion,  and  the  sight  of  the  ravages  committed  by  the  half- 
savage  invaders  had  incensed  the  king  and  his  army.  The  Rus- 
sians were  overthrown  with  great  slaughter,  and  for  a  few  months 
no  further  danger  was  to  be  apprehended  from  the  east. 

A  day  of  thanksgiving  was  proclaimed  by  the  king,  and  was 
celebrated  with  pride  and  delight  by  his  people.  The  rejoicings 
in  England  were  not  less  enthusiastic  nor  less  sincere.  This 
may  be  selected  as  the  point  of  time  at  which  the  military  glory 
of  Frederick  reached  the  zenith.  In  the  short  space  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  year  he  had  won  three  great  battles  over  the 
armies  of  three  mighty  and  warlike  monarchies — France,  Aus- 
tria, and  Russia. 

But  it  was  decreed  that  the  temper  of  that  strong  mind  should 
be  tried  by  both  extremes  of  fortune  in  rapid  succession.  Close 
upon  this  bright  series  of  triumphs  came  a  series  of  disasters, 
such  as  would  have  blighted  the  fame  and  broken  the  heart  of 
almost  any  other  commander.  Yet  Frederick,  in  the  midst  of 
his  calamities,  was  still  an  object  of  admiration  to  his  subjects, 
his  allies,  and  his  enemies.  Overwhelmed  by  adversity,  sick  of 
life,  he  still  maintained  the  contest — greater  in  defeat,  in  flight, 
and  in  what  seemed  hopeless  ruin,  than  on  the  fields  of  his 
proudest  victories. 

Having  vanquished  the  Russians,  he  hastened  into  Saxony  to  op- 
pose the  troops  of  the  empress-queen,  commanded  by  Daun,  the 
most  cautious,  and  Laudohn,  the  most  inventive  and  .enterprising 
of  her  generals.  These  two  celebrated  commanders  agreed  on  a 
scheme,  in  which  the  prudence  of  the  one  and  the  vigour  of  the 
other  seem  to  have  happily  combined.  At  dead  of  night  they 
surprised  the  king  in  his  camp  at  Hochkirchen.  His  presence 
of  mind  saved  his  troops  from  destruction ;  but  nothing  could 
save  them  from  defeat  and  severe  loss.  Marshal  Keith  was 
among  the  slain.  The  first  roar  of  the  guns  roused  the  noble 
exile  from  his  rest,  and  he  was  instantly  in  the  front  of  the  bat- 
tle. He  received  a  dangerous  wound,  but  refused  to  quit  the 
field,  and  was  in  the  act  of  rallying  his  broken  troops,  when  an 
Austrian  bullet  terminated  his  chequered  and  eventful  life. 


428  INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

The  misfortune  was  serious.  But  of  all  generals  Frederick 
understood  best  how  to  repair  defeat,  and  Daun  understood  least 
how  to  improve  victory.  In  a  few  days  the  Prussian  army  was 
as  formidable  as  before  the  battle.  The  prospect  was,  however, 
gloomy.  An  Austrian  army  under  General  Harsch  had  in- 
vaded Silesia,  and  invested  the  fortress  of  Neisse.  Daun,  after  his 
success  at  Hochkirchen,  had  written  to  Harsch  in  very  confident 
terms  : — "  Go  on  with  your  operations  against  Neisse.  Be  quite 
at  ease  as  to  the  king.  I  will  give  you  a  good  account  of  him." 
In  truth,  the  position  of  the  Prussians  was  full  of  difficulties. 
Between  them  and  Silesia  lay  the  victorious  army  of  Daun.  It 
was  not  easy  for  them  to  reach  Silesia  at  all.  If  they  did  reach 
it,  they  left  Saxony  exposed  to  the  Austrians.  But  the  vigour 
and  activity  of  Frederick  surmounted  every  obstacle.  He  made 
a  circuitous  march  of  extraordinary  rapidity,  passed  Daun, 
hastened  into  Silesia,  raised  the  siege  of  Neisse,  and  drove 
Harsch  into  Bohemia.  Daun  availed  himself  of  the  king's  ab- 
sence to  attack  Dresden.  The  Prussians  defended  it  desperately. 
The  inhabitants  of  that  wealthy  and  polished  capital  begged  in 
vain  for  mercy  from  the  garrison  within,  and  from  the  besiegers 
without.  The  beautiful  suburbs  were  burned  to  the  ground.  It 
was  clear  that  the  town,  if  won  at  all,  would  be  won  street  by 
street  by  the  bayonet.  At  this  conjuncture  came  news,  that 
Frederick,  having  cleared  Silesia  of  his  enemies,  was  returning 
by  forced  marches  into  Saxony.  Daun  retired  from  before 
Dresden,  and  fell  back  into  the  Austrian  territories.  The  king, 
over  heaps  of  ruins,  made  his  triumphant  entry  into  the  unhappy 
metropolis,  which  had  so  cruelly  expiated  the  weak  and  perfidious 
policy  of  its  sovereign.  It  was  now  the  20th  of  November.  The 
cold  weather  suspended  military  operations  ;  and  the  king  again 
took  up  his  winter  quarters  at  Breslau. 

The  third  of  the  seven  terrible  years  was  over,  and  Frederick 
still  stood  his  ground.  The  fourth  campaign,  the  most  disastrous 
of  all  the  campaigns  of  this  fearful  war,  now  opened.  The  Aus- 
trians filled  Saxony,  and  menaced  Berlin.  The  Russians  de- 
feated the  king's  generals  on  the  Oder,  threatened  Silesia, 
effected  a  junction  with  Laudohn,  and  intrenched  themselves 
strongly  at  Kunersdorf.  Frederick  hastened  to  attack  them.  A 
great  battle  was  fought.  During  the  earlier  part  of  the  day  every- 
thing yielded  to  the  impetuosity  of  the  Prussians,  and  to  the  skill 


THE   SEVEN   YEARS'   WAR   IN   GERMANY.  429 

of  their  chief.  The  lines  were  forced.  Half  the  Russian  guns  were 
taken.  The  king  sent  off  a  courier  to  Berlin  with  two  lines,  an- 
nouncing a  complete  victory.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  the  stubborn 
Russians,  defeated  yet  unbroken,  had  taken  up  their  stand  in  an 
almost  impregnable  position,  on  an  eminence  where  the  Jews  of 
Frankfort  were  wont  to  bury  their  dead.  Here  the  battle  re-com- 
menced. The  Prussian  infantry,  exhausted  by  six  hours  of  hard 
fighting  under  a  sun  which  equalled  the  tropical  heat,  were  yet 
brought  up  repeatedly  to  the  attack,  but  in  vain.  The  king  led 
three  charges  in  person.  Two  horses  were  killed  under  him. 
The  officers  of  his  staff  fell  around  him.  His  coat  was  pierced 
by  several  bullets.  All  was  in  vain.  His  infantry  was  driven 
back  with  frightful  slaughter.  Terror  began  to  spread  fast  from 
man  to  man.  At  that  moment,  the  fiery  cavalry  of  Laudohn,. 
still  fresh,  rushed  on  the  wavering  ranks.  Then  followed  a 
universal  rout.  Frederick  himself  was  on  the  point  of  falling 
into  the  hands  of  the  conquerors,  and  was  with  difficulty  saved 
by  a  gallant  officer,  who,  at  the  head  of  a  handful  of  hussars, 
made  good  a  diversion  of  a  few  minutes.  Shattered  in  body, 
shattered  in  mind,  the  king  reached  that  night  a  village  which 
the  Cossacks  had  plundered ;  and  there,  in  a  ruined  and  deserted 
farm-house,  flung  himself  on  a  heap  of  straw.  He  had  sent  to 
Berlin  a  second  despatch  very  different  from  his  first : — «  Let 
the  royal  family  leave  Berlin.  Send  the  archives  to  Potsdam. 
The  town  may  make  terms  with  the  enemy." 

The  defeat  was  in  truth  overwhelming.  Of  fifty  thousand 
men,  who  had  that  morning  marched  under  the  black  eagles,  not 
three  thousand  remained  together.  The  king  bethought  him 
again  of  his  corrosive  sublimate,  and  wrote  to  bid  adieu  to  his 
friends,  and  to  give  directions  as  to  the  measures  to  be  taken  in 
the  event  of  his  death: — "  I  have  no  resource  left" — such  is  the 
language  of  one  of  his  letters — "  all  is  lost.  I  will  not  survive 
the  ruin  of  my  country.     Farewell  for  ever." 

But  the  mutual  jealousies  of  the  confederates  prevented  them 
from  following  up  their  victory.  They  lost  a  few  days  in  loi- 
tering and  squabbling  ;  and  a  few  days,  improved  by  Frederick, 
were  worth  more  than  the  years  of  other  men.  On  the  morning 
after  the  battle,  he  had  got  together  eighteen  thousand  of  his 
troops.*  Very  soon  his  force  amounted  to  thirty  thousand. 
Guns  were  procured  from  the  neighbouring  fortresses  ;  and  there 


430  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 

was  again  an  army.  Berlin  was  for  the  present  safe ;  but  ca- 
lamities came  pouring  on  the  king  in  uninterrupted  succession. 
One  of  his  generals,  with  a  large  body  of  troops,  was  taken  at 
Maxen  ;  another  was  defeated  at  Meissen ;  and  when  at  length 
the  campaign  of  1759  closed,  in  the  midst  of  a  rigorous  winter, 
the  situation  of  Prussia  appeared  desperate.  The  only  consoling 
circumstance  was,  that,  in  the  west,  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick 
had  been  more  fortunate  than  his  master  ;  and  by  a  series  of 
exploits,  of  which  the  battle  of  Minden  was  the  most  glorious, 
had  removed  all  apprehension  of  danger  on  the  side  of  France. 

The  fifth  year  was  now  about  to  commence.  It  seemed  im- 
possible that  the  Prussian  territories,  repeatedly  devastated  by 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  invaders,  could  longer  support  the 
contest.  But  the  king  carried  on  war  as  no  European  power 
has  ever  carried  on  war,  except  the  committee  of  Public  Safety 
during  the  great  agony  of  the  French  Revolution.  He  governed 
his  kingdom  as  he  would  have  governed  a  besieged  town,  not 
caring  to  what  extent  property  was  destroyed,  or  the  pursuits  of 
civil  life  suspended,  so  that  he  did  but  make  head  against  the 
enemy.  As  long  as  there  was  a  man  left  in  Prussia,  that  man 
might  carry  a  musket — as  long  as  there  was  a  horse  left,  that 
horse  might  draw  artillery.  The  coin  was  debased,  the  civil 
functionaries  were  left  unpaid ;  in  some  provinces  civil  govern- 
ment altogether  ceased  to  exist.  But  there  were  still  rye-bread 
and  potatoes ;  there  were  still  lead  and  gunpowder ;  and  while 
the  means  of  sustaining  and  destroying  life  remained,  Frederick 
was  determined  to  fight  it  out  to  the  very  last. 

The  earlier  part  of  the  campaign  of  1760  was  unfavourable 
to  him.  Berlin  was  again  occupied  by  the  enemy.  Great  con- 
tributions were  levied  on  the  inhabitants,  and  the  royal  palace 
was  plundered.  But  at  length,  after  two  years  of  calamity,  vic- 
tory came  back  to  his  arms.  At  Lignitz  he  gained  a  great  bat- 
tle over  Laudohn ;  at  Torgau,  after  a  day  of  horrible  carnage, 
he  triumphed  over  Daun.  The  fifth  year  closed,  and  still  the 
event  was  in  suspense.  In  the  countries  where  the  war  had 
raged,  the  misery  and  exhaustion  were  more  appalling  than  ever  ; 
but  still  there  were  left  men  and  beasts,  arms  and  food,  and  still 
Frederick  fought  on.  In  truth  he  had  now  been  baited  into  sa- 
vageness.  His  heart  was  ulcerated  with  hatred.  The  implacable 
resentment  with  which  his  enemies  persecuted  him,  though  ori- 


THE  SEVEN  YEARS'  WAR  IN  GERMANY.       43 1 

ginally  provoked  by  his  own  unprincipled  ambition,  excited  in 
him  a  thirst  for  vengeance  which  he  did  not  even  attempt  to  con- 
ceal. "It  is  hard,"  he  says  in  one  of  his  letters,  "for  man  to 
bear  what  I  bear.  I  begin  to  feel  that,  as  the  Italians  say,  re- 
venge is  a  pleasure  for  the  gods.  My  philosophy  is  worn  out 
by  suffering.  I  am  no  saint,  like  those  of  whom  we  read  in  the 
legends  ;  and  I  will  own  that  I  should  die  content  if  only  I  could 
first  inflict  a  portion  of  the  misery  which  I  endure." 

Borne  up  by  such  feelings,  he  struggled  with  various  success, 
but  constant  glory,  through  the  campaign  of  1761.  On  the 
whole,  the  result  of  this  campaign  was  disastrous  to  Prussia. 
No  great  battle  was  gained  by  the  enemy  ;  but,  in  spite  of  the 
desperate  bounds  of  the  hunted  tiger,  the  circle  of  pursuers  was 
fast  closing  round  him.  Laudohn  had  surprised  the  important 
fortress  of  Schweidnitz.  With  that  fortress,  half  of  Silesia,  and 
the  command  of  the  most  important  defiles  through  the  moun- 
tains, had  been  transferred  to  the  Austrians.  The  Russians  had 
overpowered  the  king's  generals  in  Pomerania.  The  country  was 
so  completely  desolated  that  he  began,  by  his  own  confession, 
to  look  round  him  with  blank  despair,  unable  to  imagine  where 
recruits,  horses,  or  provisions,  were  to  be  found. 

Just  at  this  time  two  great  events  brought  on  a  complete  change 
in  the  relations  of  almost  all  the  powers  of  Europe.  One  of 
those  events  was  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Pitt  from  office,  the 
other  was  the  death  of  the  empress  Elizabeth  of  Russia. 

The  retirement  of  Pitt  seemed  to  be  an  omen  of  utter  ruin  to 
the  house  of  Brandenburg.  His  proud  and  vehement  nature 
was  incapable  of  any  thing  that  looked  like  either  fear  or  trea- 
chery. He  had  often  declared  that,  while  he  was  in  power, 
England  should  never  make  a  peace  of  Utrecht ; — should  never, 
for  any  selfish  object,  abandon  an  ally  even  in  the  last  extremity 
of  distress.  The  continental  war  was  his  own  war.  He  had 
been  bold  enough — he  who  in  former  times  had  attacked,  with 
irresistible  powers  of  oratory,  the  Hanoverian  policy  of  Carteret 
and  the  German  subsidies  of  Newcastle — to  declare  that  Hano- 
ver ought  to  be  as  dear  to  us  as  Hampshire,  and  that  he  would 
conquer  America  in  Germany.  He  had  fallen ;  and  the  power 
which  he  had  exercised,  not  always  with  discretion,  but  always 
with  vigour  and  genius,  had  devolved  on  a  favourite  who  was  the 
representative   of  the   Tory  party — of  the  party  which  had 


432  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

thwarted  William,  which  had  persecuted  Marlborough,  and 
which  had  given  up  the  Catalans  to  the  vengeance  of  Philip  of 
Anjou.  To  make  peace  with  France — to  shake  off  with  all,  or 
more  than  all,  the  speed  compatible  with  decency,  every  conti 
nental  connection,  these  were  among  the  chief  objects  of  the 
new  minister.  The  policy  then  followed  inspired  Frederick 
with  an  unjust,  but  deep  and  bitter  aversion  to  the  English 
name  ;  and  produced  effects  which  are  still  felt  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  To  that  policy  it  was  owing  that,  some  years 
later  England,  could  not  find  on  the  whole  continent  a  single 
ally  to  stand  by  her,  in  her  extreme  need,  against  the  house  of 
Bourbon.  To  that  policy  it  was  owing  that  Frederick,  alienated 
from  England,  was  compelled  to  connect  himself  closely,  during 
his  later  years,  with  Russia;  and  was  induced  reluctantly  to 
assist  in  that  great  crime,  the  fruitful  parent  of  other  great 
crimes — the  first  partition  of  Poland. 

Scarcely  had  the  retreat  of  Mr.  Pitt  deprived  Prussia  of  her 
only  friend,  when  the  death  of  Elizabeth  produced  an  entire 
revolution  in  the  politics  of  the  north.  The  grand-duke  Peter, 
her  nephew,  who  now  ascended  the  Russian  throne,  was  not 
merely  free  from  the  prejudices  which  his  aunt  had  entertained 
against  Frederick,  but  was  a  worshipper,  a  servile  imitator,  a 
Boswell,  of  the  great  king.  The  days  of  the  new  czar's  go- 
vernment were  few  and  evil,  but  sufficient  to  produce  a  change 
in  the  whole  state  of  Christendom.  He  set  the  Prussian  pri- 
soners at  liberty,  fitted  them  out  decently,  and  sent  them  back 
to  their  master ;  he  withdrew  his  troops  from  the  provinces 
which  Elizabeth  had  decided  on  incorporating  with  her  domi- 
nions, and  absolved  all  those  Prussian  subjects,  who  had  been 
compelled  to  swear  .fealty  to  Russia,  from  their  engagements. 

Not  content  with  concluding  peace  on  terms  favourable  to 
Prussia,  he  solicited  rank  in  the  Prussian  service,  dressed  him- 
self in  a  Prussian  uniform,  wore  the  black  eagle  of  Prussia  on 
his  breast,  made  preparations  for  visiting  Prussia,  in  order  to 
have  an  interview  with  the  object  of  his  idolatry,  and  actually 
sent  fifteen  thousand  excellent  troops  to  reinforce  the  shattered 
army  of  Frederick.  Thus  strengthened,  the  king  speedily  re- 
paired the  losses  of  the  preceding  year,  reconquered  Silesia, 
defeated  Daun  at  Buckersdorf,  invested  and  retook  Schweidnitz, 
and,  at  the  close  of  the  year,  presented  to  the  forces  of  Maria 


THE  SEVEN   YEARS'   WAR    IN   GERMANY.  433 

Theresa  a  front  as  formidable  as  before  the  great  reverses  of 
1759.  Before  the  end  of  the  campaign,  his  friend,  the  empe- 
ror Peter,  having,  by  a  series  of  absurd  insults  to  the  institu- 
tions, manners,  and  feelings  of  his  people,  united  them  in  hos- 
tility to  his  person  and  government,  was  deposed  and  murdered. 
The  empress  who,  under  the  title  of  Catherine  the  Second,  now 
assumed  the  supreme  power,  was,  at  the  commencement  of  her 
administration,  by  no  means  partial  to  Frederick,  and  refused 
to  permit  her  troops  to  remain  under  his  command.  But  she 
observed  the  peace  made  by  her  husband,  and  Prussia  was  no 
longer  threatened  by  danger  from  the  East. 

England  and  France,  at  the  same  time,  paired  off  together. 
They  concluded  a  treaty,  by  which  they  bound  themselves  to 
observe  neutrality  with  respect  to  the  German  war.  Thus  the 
coalitions  on  both  sides  were  dissolved,  and  the  original  enemies, 
Austria  and  Prussia,  remained  alone  confronting  each  other. 

Austria  had  undoubtedly  by  far  greater  means  than  Prussia, 
and  was  less  exhausted  by  hostilities  ;  yet  it  seemed  hardly  pos- 
sible that  Austria  could  effect  alone  what  she  had  in  vain  at- 
tempted to  effect,  when  supported  by  France  on  the  one  side 
and  by  Russia  on  the  other.  Danger  also  began  to  menace  the 
Imperial  house  from  another  quarter.  The  Ottoman  porte  held 
threatening  language,  and  a  hundred  thousand  Turks  were  mus- 
tered on  the  frontiers  of  Hungary.  The  proud  and  revengeful 
spirit  of  the  empress-queen  at  length  gave  way ;  and  in  Febru- 
ary, 1763,  the  peace  of  Hubertsburg  put  an  end  to  the  conflict 
which  had,  during  seven  years,  devastated  Germany.  The  king 
ceded  nothing.  The  whole  continent  in  arms  had  proved  unable 
to  tear  Silesia  from  that  iron  grasp. 

The  war  was  over.  Frederick  was  safe.  His  glory  was  be- 
yond the  reach  of  envy.  If  he  had  not  made  conquests  as  vast 
as  those  of  Alexander,  of  Csesar,  and  of  Napoleon — if  he  had 
not,  on  the  field  of  battle,  enjoyed  the  constant  success  of  Marl- 
borough and  Wellington — he  had  yet  given  an  example  unrivalled 
in  history  of  what  capacity  and  resolution  can  effect  against 
the  greatest  superiority  of  power  and  the  utmost  spite  of  for- 
tune. He  entered  Berlin  in  triumph,  after  an  absence  of  more 
than  six  years.  The  streets  were  brilliantly  lighted  up  ;  and, 
as  he  passed  along  in  an  open  carriage,  with  Ferdinand  of 
Brunswick  at  his  side,  the  multitude  saluted  him  with  loud 
55  2  M 


434  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

praises  and  blessings.  He  was  moved  by  those  marks  of  attach- 
ment, and  repeatedly  exclaimed — »  Long  live  my  dear  people  !— 
long  live  my  children  !"  Yet,  even  in  the  midst  of  that  gay 
spectacle,  he  could  not  but  perceive  everywhere  the  traces  of 
destruction  and  decay.  The  city  had  been  more  than  once 
plundered.  The  population  had  considerably  diminished.  Ber- 
lin, however,  had  suffered  little  when  compared  with  most  parts 
of  the  kingdom.  The  ruin  of  private  fortunes,  the  distress  of 
all  ranks,  was  such  as  might  appal  the  firmest  mind.  Almost 
every  province  had  been  the  seat  of  war,  and  of  war  conducted 
with  merciless  ferocity.  Clouds  of  Croatians  had  descended 
on  Silesia.  Tens  of  thousands  of  Cossacks  had  been  let  loose 
on  Pomerania  and  Brandenburg.  The  mere  contributions  levied 
by  the  invaders  amounted,  it  was  said,  to  more  than  a  hundred 
millions  of  dollars;  and  the  value  of  what  they  extorted  was 
probably  much  less  than  the  value  of  what  they  destroyed. 
The  fields  lay  uncultivated.  The  very  seed-corn  had  been 
devoured  in  the  madness  of  hunger.  Famine  and  contagious 
maladies,  the  effect  of  famine,  had  swept  away  the  herds  and 
flocks,  and  there  was  reason  to  fear  that  a  great  pestilence 
among  the  human  race  was  likely  to  follow  in  the  train  of  that 
tremendous  war.  Near  fifteen  thousand  houses  had  been  burned 
to  the  ground. 

The  population  of  the  kingdom  had  in  seven  years  decreased 
to  the  frightful  extent  of  ten  per  cent.  A  sixth  of  the  males 
capable  of  bearing  arms  had  actually  perished  on  the  field  of 
battle.  In  some  districts,  no  labourers,  except  women,  were 
seen  in  the  fields  at  harvest-time.  In  others,  the  traveller 
passed  shuddering  through  a  succession  of  silent  villages,  in 
which  not  a  single  inhabitant  remained.  The  currency  had 
been  debased ;  the  authority  of  laws  and  magistrates  had  been 
suspended  ;  the  whole  social  system  was  deranged.  For,  during 
that  convulsive  struggle,  every  thing  that  was  not  military  vio- 
lence was  anarchy.  Even  the  army  was  disorganized.  Some 
great  generals,  and  a  crowd  of  excellent  officers,  had  fallen, 
and  it  had  been  impossible  to  supply  their  places.  The  diffi- 
culty of  finding  recruits  had,  towards  the  close  of  the  war,  been 
so  great  that  selection  and  rejection  were  impossible.  Whole 
battalions  were  composed  of  deserters  or  of  prisoners.  It  was 
hardly  to  be  hoped  that  thirty  years  of  repose  and  industry 


THE  SEVEN  YEARS'  WAR  IN  GERMANY. 


435 


would  repair  the  ruin  produced  by  seven  years  of  havoc.  One 
consolatory  circumstance,  indeed,  there  was.  No  debt  had  been 
incurred.  The  burdens  of  the  war  had  been  terrible, — almost 
insupportable  ;  but  no  arrear  was  left  to  embarrass  the  finances 
in  the  time  of  peace.* 

*  For  this  account  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  we  are  indebted  to  Macaulay. 


436 


INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


WASHINGTON. 


OPENING  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


T  the  close  of  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  which  termi- 
nated in  America  with 
the  conquest  of  Canada, 
the  British  colonists  in 
this  country  were  well  disposed  to- 
wards the  parent  country ;  but  an 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  British 
government  to  restrict  their  com- 
merce and  subject  them  to  stamp  du- 
ties and  other  taxes,  without  representation  in  parliament,  cre- 
ated strong  discontent.     A  series  of  aggressions  followed,  such 


OPENING   OF   THE   AMERICAN   REVOLUTION.  437 

as  the  quartering  of  troops  on  the  people,  the  Boston  massa- 
cre of  1770,  and  the  shutting  up  of  the  port  by  the  famous 
Boston  port  bill,  until,  in  1774,  a  congress  composed  of  dele- 
gates from  twelve  of  the  thirteen  colonies  assembled  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  prepared  for  organized  resistance  to  the  mother 
country.  The  acts  of  this  congress  countenanced  the  people 
of  Massachusetts  in  their  resistance  to  the  oppressive  port  bill ; 
and,  while  addresses  to  the  king  and  the  people  of  England 
were  voted,  they  hinted  at  the  necessity  of  looking  forward  to 
melancholy  events,  and  of  being  ready  for  every  contingency 
which  might  arise. 

The  inclinations  of  the  people  were  in  exact  agreement  with 
the  decisions  of  the  congress.  The  inhabitants  of  Boston  were 
supplied  by  contributions  from  all  quarters.  Even  those  who, 
by  their  situation,  appeared  the  most  likely  to  derive  advantages 
from  the  cessation  of  their  trade,  were  most  forward  to  relieve 
them  in  their  distress  ;  and  the  people  of  Marblehead,  a  town 
at  no  great  distance,  generously  offered  them  the  use  of  their 
harbour,  and  of  their  wharfs  and  warehouses,  free  of  all  ex- 
pense. Every  one  who  could  procure  arms  was  diligent  in 
learning  how  to  use  them.  The  whole  country  of  Massachu- 
setts seemed  ready  to  rise.  In  the  mean  time,  British  troops 
assembled  in  greater  numbers  at  Boston ;  and  General  Gage 
thought  it  prudent  to  fortify  the  neck  of  land  which  joins  that 
city  to  the  continent.  He  also  seized  the  magazines  of  gun- 
powder, ammunition,  and  military  stores  at  Cambridge  and 
Charlestown  ;  and  thus,  by  depriving  the  colonists  for  a  time 
of  the  means  of  annoying  him,  he  rendered  them  less  able  to 
carry  their  designs  into  execution.  An  assembly  was  called, 
and  its  sitting  immediately  countermanded ;  but  the  representa- 
tives met,  notwithstanding  the  proclamation  of  the  governor, 
and,  after  waiting  a  day  for  his  arrival,  they  voted  themselves 
"  a  provincial  congress."  Winter  approached;  the  people  re- 
fused to  supply  the  troops  either  with  lodging  or  clothes  ;  the 
selectmen  of  Boston  obliged  the  workmen  employed  in  erecting 
the  barracks  to  desist  ;  and  the  merchants  of  New  York  de- 
clared that  they  would  "  never  supply  any  article  for  the  benefit 
of  men  who  were  sent  as  the  enemies  of  their  country." 

All  hope  of  reconciliation  with  Britain  was  now  at  an  end. 
The  provincials  took  possession  of  the  stores  which  belonged  to 

2m2 


438 


I  MM  DENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


BATTLE    OF     CONCORD. 


the  government  wherever  they  were  able  to  secure  them  ;  and 
at  Newport,  in  Rhode  Island,  the  inhabitants  carried  off  no 
fewer  than  forty  pieces  of  cannon,  intended  for  the  defence  of 
the  place,  alleging  that  they  seized  them  in  order  to  prevent 
them  from  being  used  against  their  liberties  and  their  lives. 
The  assemblies  in  all  the  colonies  voted  that  ammunition  should 
be  procured  at  the  general  expense ;  and  it  required  but  little 
foresight  to  discover  that  a  civil  war,  with  all  its  fearful  conse- 
quences, was  about  to  ensue. 

General  Gage,  having  received  intelligence  that  a  number  of 
field-pieces  were  collected  at  Salem,  despatched  a  party  of  sol- 
diers to  take  possession  of  them  in  the  name  of  the  king.  The 
people,  however,  assembling  in  great  numbers,  prevented  the 
military  from  advancing  to  the  town  by  pulling  up  a  drawbridge 
which  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  pass,  and  they  returned  to 
the  governor  without  accomplishing  their  purpose.  The  next 
attempt  was  followed  by  more  interesting  consequences.  The 
provincials  had  deposited  a  large  quantity  of  ammunition  and 
stores  at  Concord,  about  twenty  miles  from  Boston  ;  these  Ge- 
neral Gage  resolved  to  seize  or  to  destroy,  and  with  that  view 
he  sent  a  detachment  of  eight  hundred  men,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Major  Pitcairn  and  Colonel  Smith,  ordering  them  to 


OPENING   OF   THE   AMERICAN   REVOLUTION.  439 

proceed  with  the  utmost  expedition,  and  with  all  possible  se- 
crecy. But,  notwithstanding  his  care  and  the  alacrity  of  the 
soldiers,  the  provincials  had  immediate  notice  of  his  design ; 
and,  when  the  British  troops  arrived  at  Lexington,  within  five 
miles  of  Concord,  the  militia  of  the  place  were  drawn  up  on  the 
parade  and  ready  to  receive  them.  A  skirmish  ensuing,  seve- 
ral of  the  Americans  were  killed.  The  rest  fled  without  mak- 
ing any  further  resistance ;  and  the  detachment,  proceeding  to 
Concord,  destroyed  or  took  possession  of  the  stores  which  were 
there.  Having  effected  their  purpose,  the  military  now  began 
to  retire ;  but  the  colonists,  pressing  upon  them  on  all  sides, 
they  were  driven  from  post  to  post  till  they  arrived  at  Lexing- 
ton, where,  their  ammunition  being  expended,  they  must  infal- 
libly have  been  cut  off,  if  Lord  Percy  had  not  been  sent  by  the 
governor  with  a  strong  party  to  their  assistance.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  reinforcement,  they  quitted  Lexington  and  con- 
tinued their  march  towards  Boston,  which  they  reached  the  day 
after,  though  not  without  frequent  interruption  and  very  great 
difficulty.  In  the  affair  of  Lexington,  which  has  been  justly 
regarded  as  the  commencement  of  the  American  war,  and  in 
the  retreat  from  that  place,  the  British  lost  nearly  two  hundred 
and  fifty  men. 

The  colonists,  elevated  with  their  success  in  this  engagement, 
became  more  and  more  fixed  in  their  opposition,  and  even  medi- 
tated the  total  expulsion  of  the  English  from  Boston.  An 
army  of  twenty  thousand  men  encamped  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  city,  and  that  force  was  soon  increased  by  the  arrival  of 
the  troops  from  Connecticut,  under  General  Putnam,  an  officer 
of  great  bravery  and  of  tried  skill  in  the  military  art ;  but 
Gage  had  fortified  the  town  so  strongly,  that,  numerous  as  they 
were,  the  provincials  durst  not  attempt  it  by  assault ;  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  governor  was  too  weak  to  contend  with  them 
in  the  field.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  he  was  able  to 
act  on  the  offensive.  A  powerful  reinforcement  arrived  from 
England,  under  Generals  Howe,  Burgoyne,  and  Clinton.  Mar- 
tial law  was  proclaimed,  and  pardon  was  offered  to  such  as 
would  return  to  their  allegiance. 

On  the  lGth  of  June,  A.  d.  1775,  the  Americans  took  pos- 
session of  Hunker's  Hill,  an  eminence  which  overlooks  and 
commands  the  town  of  Boston,  and,  labouring  with  incredible 


440  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

diligence  and  secrecy,  they  threw  up  a  redoubt,  and  protected 
it  by  means  of  an  intrenchment,  before  the  approach  of  day 
enabled  the  British  to  discover  what  they  had  done.  From  this 
position  General  Gage  thought  it  necessary  to  dislodge  them. 
Accordingly,  he  directed  a  strong  body  of  men,  under  the  or- 
ders of  Generals  Howe  and  Pigot,  to  land  at  the  foot  of  Bunker's 
Hill,  and  to  proceed  with  a  detachment  of  the  artillery  against 
the  Americans.  But  the  latter,  having  the  advantage  of  the 
ground,  poured  upon  them  such  an  incessant  and  deadly  fire  of 
musketry  that  the  British  were  thrown  into  confusion,  and  so 
many  of  the  officers  were  killed  that  General  Howe  was  left 
almost  alone.  Yet,  though  twice  repulsed,  the  king's  troops 
rallied  and  advanced  again  towards  the  fortifications  which  the 
provincials  had  erected.  The  redoubt  was  now  attacked  on 
three  sides  at  once ;  the  ammunition  of  the  colonists  began  to 
fail ;  and  the  British  pressing  forward,  the  Americans  were  con- 
strained to  abandon  the  post,  and  to  retreat  in  the  face  of  the 
enemy  over  Charlestown  Neck ;  where  they  were  exposed  to  a 
galling  fire  from  the  ships  in  the  harbour.  In  this  battle,  the 
town  of  Charlestown,  which  is  separated  from  Boston  by  a  nar- 
row sheet  of  water,  was  reduced  to  ashes  by  the  orders  of  Ge- 
neral Pigot,  who  was  saved  by  that  measure,  as  well  as  by  the 
arrival  of  General  Clinton,  from  the  ignominy  of  a  defeat. 

Though  the  victory  in  the  attack  at  Bunker's  Hill  was  justly 
claimed  by  the  royalists,  it  was  not  gained  without  considerable 
loss  on  their  part.  The  flower  of  the  English  troops  in  Ame- 
rica were  engaged,  and  their  killed  and  wounded  amounted  to 
ten  hundred  and  fifty-four  ;  while  those  of  the  provincials  were 
not  above  the  half  of  that  number.  But,  while  the  colonists 
suffered  a  defeat  in  this  encounter,  they  were  elated  in  no  ordi- 
nary degree  at  the  intrepidity  which  their  forces  had  displayed; 
and  they  entertained  the  hope  that  patriotism  and  an  ardent  love 
of  freedom  would  enable  them  to  withstand  the  assaults  of  the 
British,  till  experience  should  render  them  equal  to  them  in 
discipline  and  military  skill. 

They  erected  fortifications  on  the  heights  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Charlestown,  and  reduced  the  king's  troops  in  Boston 
to  very  great  distress  for  want  of  provisions.  Far  from  enter- 
taining any  thought  of  submission,  they  redoubled  their  exer- 
tions, and  increased  their  vigilance.     In  the  mean  time,  the 


OPENING   OF   THE   AMERICAN   REVOLUTION. 


443 


MOUNT    VERNON. 


congress,  which  had  again  been  assembled,  acted  with  all  the 
decision  which  was  expected  from  them :  they  drew  up  articles 
of  perpetual  union  ;  they  published  a  declaration  in  which  they 
justified  the  measures  which  had  been  adopted  at  Bunker's  Hill ; 
they  resolved  to  establish  an  army,  and  to  issue  a  large  quan- 
tity of  paper  money  in  order  to  support  it.  They  held  a  solemn 
conference  with  the  Indians,  by  whom  they  were  surrounded, 
telling  them  that  the  English  had  begun  the  war  with  a  view 
to  enslave  them,  as  well  as  their  own  countrymen  in  America ; 
and  by  this,  in  conjunction  with  other  arguments,  they  induced 
many  of  the  savage  tribes  either  to  assist  them,  or  to  remain 
neuter  during  a  great  part  of  the  contest  which  followed. 

The  provincials  now  wanted  nothing  but  a  leader  to  enable 
them  to  take  effectual  measures  against  the  British,  and  they 
soon  found,  in  the  person  of  George  Washington,  a  man  quali- 
fied in  every  respect  to  occupy  that  high  and  important  station. 
He  was  the  third  son  of  Augustine  Washington,  a  settler  in 
Virginia.  His  education  was  limited  to  what  could  be  obtained 
from  books  written  in  the  English  language ;  but  he  derived 
from  nature  a  mind  of  extraordinary  capacity,  and  was  endowed 
with  prudence,  courage,  and  perseverance,  beyond  the  degree 
which  is  allotted  to  common  men.  At  the  age  of  nineteen,  he 
held  the  rank  of  major  in  the  provincial  troops  of  Virginia. 


444 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


WASHINOION    S    HEAD-QUARTERS     AT     OAMBRIDQB. 

He  afterwards  distinguished  himself  against  the  French,  in 
their  attempts  to  unite  their  possessions  in  Canada  with  those 
in  Louisiana,  and  had  the  command  of  a  regiment  about  the 
same  time.  At  Jhe  conclusion  of  the  war,  which  terminated  in 
the  surrender  of  Canada  to  the  British,  he  retired  to  his  estate 
of  Mount  Vernon,  and  devoted  himself  to  agricultural  employ- 
ments, till  the  troubles  in  which  the  Americans  were  involved 
led  him  to  take  an  active  part  in  their  defence  against  the  at- 
tempts of  the  English  cabinet  to  tax  them  without  their  con- 
sent. He  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  first  grand  congress  at 
Philadelphia,  where  his  example  and  influence  produced  very 
considerable  effects;  and  now  that  the  situation  of  the  provin- 
cials called  for  a  man  of  tried  firmness  and  approved  judgment, 
he  was  unanimously  elected  "  general  and  commander-in-chief 
of  the  army  of  the  united  colonies."  When  his  appointment 
was  intimated  to  him  by  the  president  of  the  congress,  he  mo- 
destly observed  that  he  was  not  equal  to  the  duties  of  the  sta- 
tion to  which  their  partiality  had  raised  him  ;  but  he  declared 


OPENING    OF   THE   AMERICAN   REVOLUTION.  445 

at  the  same  time  that  he  was  ready  to  exert  whatever  talents 
he  might  have  in  the  service  of  his  country,  and  willing  to 
enter  immediately  on  the  performance  of  his  duty. 

On  arriving  at  Camhridge,  the  head-quarters  of  the  Ameri- 
can army,  General  Washington  inspected  and  reviewed  the 
troops.  He  found  them  animated  with  great  zeal,  and  pre- 
pared to  follow  him  to  the  most  desperate  undertakings ;  but  it 
was  not  long  before  he  perceived  that  they  were  unacquainted 
with  subordination,  and  strangers  to  military  discipline.  The 
spirit  of  liberty,  which  had  brought  them  together,  showed 
itself  in  all  their  actions.  In  the  province  of  Massachusetts, 
the  officers  had  been  chosen  by  the  votes  of  the  soldiers,  and 
felt  themselves  in  no  degree  superior  to  them.  The  congres- 
sional and  colonial  authorities  likewise  interfered  with  one 
another.  The  troops  were  scantily  supplied  with  arms  and  am- 
munition, and  all  their  operations  were  retarded  by  the  want 
of  engineers.  These  difficulties,  however,  were  overcome  by  the 
talents  and  perseverance  of  Washington ;  he  formed  the  soldiers 
into  brigades,  and  accustomed  them  to  obedience  ;  he  requested 
the  congress  to  nominate  a  commissary-general,  a  quartermas- 
ter-general, and  a  paymaster-general,  all  of  which  officers  they 
had  neglected  to  appoint ;  a  number  of  the  most  active  men  were 
constantly  employed  in  learning  to  manage  the  artillery  ;  and 
such  were  the  efforts  of  the  commander-in-chief,  that  in  no  very 
long  time  the  army  was  completely  organized  and  fit  for  service. 

It  was  not  the  temper  of  Washington  to  remain  inactive. 
His  troops  were  speedily  and  regularly  encamped  before  the 
town  of  Boston,  and  occupied  a  space  of  ground  nearly  twelve 
miles  in  length.  The  English  were  strongly  intrenched  on 
Bunker's  Hill  and  Roxbury  Neck,  and  defended  by  the  float- 
ing batteries  in  Mystic  river  and  a  ship-of-war  that  lay  be- 
tween Boston  and  Charlestown.  The  American  general  deter- 
mined, after  a  long  blockade,  to  force  General  Howe,  who  had 
succeeded  General  Gage  in  the  chief  command,  either  to  meet 
the  provincials  in  the  field  or  to  evacuate  Boston,  and  with  this 
intention  he  opened  his  batteries  on  the  east  and  west  sides 
of  the  town,  (March  2,  1776,)  and  continued  the  bombard- 
ment without  interruption.  Howe,  finding  that  the  place  was 
no  longer  tenable,  resolved,  if  possible,  to  drive  the  colonial 
troops  from  their  works.     A  vigorous  attack  was  meditated  on 

2N 


446 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


SIEGE    OF    BOSTON. 


Dorchester  Neck,  which  they  had  fortified  with  great  care,  and 
every  thing  was  in  readiness,  when  a  dreadful  storm  prevented 
the  British  from  making  the  attempt ;  and  next  day  it  was 
thought  advisable  to  desist  from  it  altogether.  Nothing  re- 
mained, therefore,  but  to  evacuate  the  town.  The  Americans, 
however,  did  not  annoy  the  English  in  their  retreat,  as  they 
knew  that  it  was  in  their  power  to  reduce  the  place  to  ashes — 
a  loss  which  the  labour  of  many  years  and  the  profits  of  the 
most  successful  trade  could  not  easily  have  repaired.  For  this 
reason  they  allowed  them  to  embark  with  great  deliberation, 
and  to  take  with  them  whatever  might  be  thought  necessary  for 
their  voyage,  together  with  as  many  of  the  inhabitants  as  chose 
rather  to  leave  their  country  than  expose  themselves  to  the  con- 
sequences of  their  attachment  to  the  royal  cause.  After  re- 
maining for  some  time  in  Nantasket  road,  the  whole  fleet  set 
sail ;  and  the  army  of  the  Americans  proceeded  in  divisions  to 
New  York,  which  Washington  supposed  to  be  the  place  to 
which  the  English  were  gone. 

During  these  transactions  at  Boston,  events  of  considerable 
importance  took  place  in  other  parts  of  America.     The  for- 


OPENING   OF   THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION.  447 


DEATH    OF    MONTGOMERY. 


tresses  of  Crown  Point  and  Ticoncleroga  having  been  occupied 
by  the  provincials  some  time  before,  the  reduction  of  Canada 
appeared  to  be  more  obvious  and  easy.  Three  thousand  men, 
under  the  command  of  Generals  Schuyler  and  Montgomery, 
were  sent  by  the  orders  of  the  congress  into  that  country, 
where  they  were  opposed  by  the  English  general  Carleton,  an 
officer  of  much  experience  and  activity.  The  provincials  laid 
siege  to  St.  John's,  and  the  British  commander  made  haste  to 
relieve  the  place.  But  he  was  attacked  by  the  provincials  with 
a  superior  force  while  yet  on  his  march,  and,  being  utterly  de- 
feated, was  compelled  to  retire  to  Quebec.  The  garrison  of  St. 
John's  surrendered  themselves  prisoners  of  war  ;  Montreal  was 
taken  by  General  Montgomery;  Arnold  penetrated  into  Canada 
with  a  strong  body  of  Americans  during  all  the  severity  of  win- 
ter ;  and,  after  uniting  his  forces  with  those  of  Montgomery, 
he  endeavoured  to  take  Quebec  by  surprise.  But,  after  a  des- 
perate engagement,  in  which  Montgomery  was  killed,  together 
with  the  best  part  of  his  officers,  the  provincials  were  over- 
powered, and  forced  to  abandon  the  attempt.  Arnold,  having 
removed  to  some  distance  from  Quebec,  was  enabled,  by  the 


448 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


kindness  of  the  people,  to  endure  the  hardships  of  an  encamp- 
ment in  the  midst  of  winter,  and  under  a  climate  to  the  rigour 
of  which  his  soldiers  were  but  little  accustomed.  Notwithstand- 
ing his  defeat,  he  was  created  a  brigadier  by  the  unanimous 
voice  of  the  congress.  General  Sullivan  then  took  the  com- 
mand of  the  provincial  troops.  The  Americans  were  defeated 
with  great  loss  at  the  Three  Rivers,  and  were  finally  obliged  to 
retire  from  Canada. 

In  Virginia,  the  war  was  carried  on  with  great  activity,  and 
was  in  general  favourable  to  the  American  interest. 


LORD    PERCT. 


CAMPAIGN    OF    1770. 


449 


GENERAL    WAYNE. 


with 


CAMPAIGN   OF   1776. 

FTER  all  attempts  towards 
a  reconciliation  with  Great 
Britain  appeared  to  be  fruit- 
less, the  congress  proceeded 
in  full  assembly  to  renounce 
their    allegiance  to  the   sovereign  of 
that  country,  and  to  declare  that  the 
United  Colonies  were  independent  of 
,,  all  authority  in  Europe. 

After  the  declaration  of  independ- 
ence, the  Americans  had  to   struggle 
great   difficulties  in  supporting   their   pretensions.      The 


^**5s^^e^~_^_. 


450 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


WASHINGTON  REFUSING  TO  RECEIVE  HOWES  LETTEI 


king's  standard  was  erected  in  North  Carolina,  by  Colonel 
McDonald  ;  and  Charleston,  the  capital  of  South  Carolina,  was 
furiously  attacked  by  a  fleet  from  England.  McDonald,  how- 
ever, being  met  by  the  provincial  general  Moore,  was  totally 
defeated  by  that  officer  ;  and  the  bombardment  from  the  ships, 
though  violent  and  continued  for  a  long  time,  produced  no  great 
effect  upon  the  town. 

But  as  the  chief  part  of  the  colonial  troops  was  assembled  in 
the  division  of  New  York,  under  Washington,  their  commander, 
and  as  that  province  was  most  accessible  by  sea,  the  English 
resolved  to  make  an  attempt  upon  it  with  all  their  forces.  Six 
ships  of  the  line,  and  thirty  frigates,  with  many  smaller  vessels, 
composed  the  fleet.  It  was  under  the  orders  of  Lord  Howe, 
who  had  arrived  from  Europe  some  time  before,  and  the  land 
army  was  commanded  by  Sir  William  Howe,  his  brother.  Soon 
after  his  appearance  oft'  the  coast,  Lord  Howe  sent  a  letter  to 
the  American  commander-in-chief,  addressed  to  "  George  Wash- 
ington, Esq."  ;  but  the  general  refused  to  open  it,  as  the  address 
was  not  in  a  style  corresponding  to  the  dignity  of  the  situation 
which  he  held.     Another  letter  was  sent  directed  to   "  George 


CAMPAIGN   OF  1776.  451 

Washington,  &c.  &c.  &c";  but  this  also  was  refused.  "It  did 
not  acknowledge,"  he  said,  « the  public  character  with  which 
he  was  invested  by  the  congress,  and  in  no  other  character 
would  he  have  any  intercourse  with  his  lordship."  The  com- 
munication, however,  to  which  these  letters  gave  rise,  afforded 
the  British  an  opportunity  of  exerting  themselves  in  order  to 
effect  a  reconciliation.  With  this  view,  the  American  general 
was  informed,  that  Lord  Howe  was  invested  with  full  powers  to 
receive  the  submission  of  the  colonists,  and  to  reinstate  them 
in  the  favour  of  their  lawful  sovereign ;  but  Washington  de- 
clared, that  these  powers  appeared  to  consist  in  nothing  but 
granting  pardons;  and  that  as  the  provincials,  in  defending 
their  rights,  had  been  guilty  of  no  crime,  they  required  no  for- 
giveness. 

Both  sides,  therefore,  prepared  to  terminate  their  disputes  by 
arms ;  and  hostilities  began  as  soon  as  the  English  troops  were 
collected  at  their  appointed  stations.  The  character  of  the 
forces  which  were  now  about  to  engage  was  very  different.  The 
British  were  numerous,  regularly  disciplined,  and  accustomed 
to  military  operations  ;  while  the  Americans  were  inferior  in 
numbers,  and  inexperienced,  newly  embodied,  and  not  well  pro- 
vided with  artillery  and  ammunition.  Washington  marked  the 
condition  of  his  army  with  very  great  concern.  It  amounted 
to  no  more  than  eighteen  thousand  effective  men ;  while  that  of 
the  English  was  nearly  twenty-five  thousand  strong.  As  the 
American  government  had  no  established  revenue,  and  as  the 
sources  of  their  commerce  were  completely  dried  up,  the  diffi- 
culties which  the  general  had  to  encounter  were  such  as  no  hu- 
man ability  and  perseverance  could  easily  surmount. 

Notwithstanding  the  difficulties  which  Washington  had  to  en- 
counter, he  maintained  his  positions,  and  availed  himself  of 
every  circumstance  which  might  encourage  his  troops  or  im- 
prove their  discipline.  He  animated  them  by  his  exhortations 
and  example  ;  he  told  them  that  the  day  was  approaching  which 
would  decide  whether  the  American  people  were  to  be  freemen 
or  slaves ;  and  he  informed  them,  that  the  happiness  of  myriads 
yet  unborn  depended  on  their  courage  and  conduct.  He  pro- 
mised rewards  to  those  who  should  distinguish  themselves  by 
acts  o*f  extraordinary  bravery,  and  threatened  such  as  were 
doubtful  or  dilatory  with  the  utmost  severity  of  punishment,  if 


452  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   IIISTORY. 

they  should  desert  the  cause  in  which  they  were  engaged.  The 
time  was  at  hand  when  the  effect  of  these  exhortations  was  to 
be  ascertained.  In  the  month  of  August,  a.  d.  1776,  the 
English  made  a  descent  upon  Long  Island,  with  forty  pieces  of 
cannon,  and  under  cover  of  their  ships.  On  a  peninsula, 
formed  by  the  East  river  and  Cowan's  cove,  and  constituting 
part  of  the  same  island,  lay  Putnam,  the  American  general, 
strongly  fortified,  and  waiting  the  approach  of  the  king's  troops. 
Between  the  armies  there  was  a  range  of  hills,  the  principal 
pass  through  which  wTas  near  a  place  called  Flatbush.  At  this 
place,  the  Hessians,  forming  the  centre  of  the  royalists,  took 
their  station.  The  left  wing,  under  the  orders  of  General  Grant, 
was  close  upon  the  shore,  and  the  right,  commanded  by  General 
Clinton,  Earl  Percy,  and  Lord  Cornwallis,  and  comprehending 
the  chief  strength  of  the  British  forces,  approached  the  oppo- 
site coast  of  Flat  Land.  Putnam  had  directed  that  all  the 
passes  should  be  secured  by  strong  detachments  of  the  provin- 
cial troops.  The  orders  to  this  purpose,  though  not  disobeyed, 
were  not  complied  with  to  the  extent  which  that  general  required ; 
and  one  road  through  the  hills,  of  the  utmost  importance,  was 
entirely  neglected ;  an  oversight  which  was  speedily  communi- 
cated to  the  British,  and  which  they  were  too  wise  not  to  im- 
prove to  their  advantage.  On  the  evening  of  the  26th,  General 
Clinton  drew  off  the  right  wing  of  the  English  army,  in  order 
to  gain  the  heights.  Nearly  about  daybreak,  he  reached  the 
pass  undiscovered  by  the  enemy,  and  immediately  took  posses- 
sion of  it.  The  detachment  under  Lord  Percy  followed,  and 
when  the  day  appeared,  the  royalists  advanced  into  the  level 
country  between  the  hills  and  Brooklyn,  a  village  situated  on 
the  peninsula,  where  the  Americans  were  encamped.  Without 
loss  of  time,  Clinton  fell  upon  the  rear  of  the  provincials,  and 
the  Hessians  attacking  them  in  front  at  the  same  instant,  neither 
valour  nor  skill  could  save  them  from  a  defeat.  Inspirited, 
however,  by  their  generals,  and  the  presence  of  Washington, 
they  continued  the  engagement  for  a  while,  and  fought  with  all 
the  bravery  of  men  whom  the  love  of  freedom  animates  to  deeds 
of  heroism ;  but  pressed  by  superior  numbers,  and  thrown  into 
confusion,  they  gave  way  on  every  side,  and  fled  with  the  utmost 
precipitation  to  the  woods.  Nor  was  this  the  only  part? of  the 
army  which  suffered ;   the  right  wing,  engaged  with  General 


GENERAL    PUTNA] 


CAMPAIGN   OF   1776. 


455 


RETREAT  FROM  LONG  ISLAND. 


Grant,  experienced  a  similar  fate.  And  thus,  in  one  fatal  day, 
the  Americans  lost  four  thousand  of  their  best  troops,  and,  what 
was  of  more  value  to  them,  their  confidence  of  success ;  a  con- 
fidence which  till  now  had  supported  them  amidst  all  their  suf- 
ferings, and  had  established  in  their  minds  a  resolution  of  part- 
ing with  their  liberty  only  with  their  lives.  In  this  engagement 
the  British  fought  with  extraordinary  valour,  and  their  antago- 
nists, though  less  experienced  in  the  art  of  war,  were  equally 
distinguished  by  the  steadiness  of  their  conduct.  Of  a  regiment 
consisting  of  young  gentlemen  from  Maryland,  the  greater  part 
was  cut  in  pieces,  and  not  one  of  those  who  survived  had  escaped 
without  a  wound. 

After  the  defeat  at  Brooklyn,  and  the  evacuation  of  Long 
Island  by  the  Americans,  proposals  for  an  accommodation  were 
made  by  Lord  Howe.  But  as  his  lordship  was  not  authorized 
to  treat  with  the  congress  as  a  legal  assembly,  he  invited  such 
of  its  members  as  were  desirous  of  peace  to  a  private  conference. 
To  this  invitation  the  congress  replied,  that  as  they  were  the 


456 


INCIDENTS   OF    .MODERN    HISTORY. 


LORD     HOWE. 


representatives  of  the  free  and  independent  states  of  America, 
it  was  not  possible  for  them  to  send  any  of  their  number,  to 
confer  with  the  English  commanders  in  their  individual  capacity  ; 
but  that,  as  it  was  exceedingly. to  be  wished  that  an  accommo- 
dation should  take  place  on  reasonable  terms,  they  would  direct 
a  committee  to  receive  the  proposals  of  the  British  government. 
Accordingly  they  nominated  for  this  purpose,  the  celebrated  Dr. 
Franklin,  Mr.  J.  Adams,  and  Mr.  Rutledge,  all  zealous  and 
faithful  in  the  cause  of  liberty.  But  notwithstanding  the  dis- 
position of  Lord  Howe,  which  was  certainly  towards  peace,  and 
the  late  misfortunes  of  the  provincial  troops,  the  conference  was 
altogether  ineffectual :  his  lordship  would  not  acknowledge  the 
deputies  as  the  commissioners  of  a  free  people ;  and  the  depu- 
ties would  not  treat  with  him  on  any  other  condition.  It  was 
resolved  therefore,  on  both  sides,  to  prosecute  the  war  with  all 
their  vigour  and  their  utmost  resources. 

The  provincial  army  under  the  orders  of  Washington  was 
now  stationed  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York.     They  had  erected 


CAMPAIGN   OF   1776.  457 

many  batteries  near  the  place,  and  from  these  they  kept  up  an 
incessant  fire  upon  the  British  ships.  Between  the  armies  lay 
the  East  river,  which  the  royalists,  for  some  days,  had  mani- 
fested a  desire  to  cross.  Accordingly,  after  the  fleet  had  si- 
lenced the  American  batteries,  they  landed  on  the  opposite 
shore,  at  Kipp's  Bay,  nearly  three  miles  distant  from  New 
York ;  and  marching  rapidly  towards  the  city,  they  forced  the 
enemy  to  abandon  their  works,  and  to  retreat  with  the  utmost 
precipitation.  Leaving  the  town  itself,  and  their  baggage,  pro- 
visions, and  military  stores,  in  possession  of  the  British,  the 
Americans  withdrew  to  the  northern  part  of  the  island,  where 
the  chief  strength  of  their  forces  was  collected.  Here  Wash- 
ington determined  to  wait  the  approach  of  the  king's  troops,  and 
in  the  mean  time,  he  used  every  method  in  his  power  to  restore 
the  courage  of  his  soldiers,  and  elevate  their  fallen  hopes.  He 
had  long  ago  formed  that  plan  of  operations  which  is  usually 
successful  against  an  invading  army ;  though  with  the  intention 
of  deviating  from  it  as  circumstances  might  requird.  It  was 
his  design  at  present,  not  to  risk  a  general  engagement,  but  to 
harass  the  English  by  continual  skirmishes,  by  cutting  off  their 
supplies,  and  exhausting  their  patience.  The  object  of  the 
British  general  was  exactly  the  contrary  of  this ;  his  safety,  as 
well  as  his  success,"  lay  in  bringing  the  Americans  speedily  to 
action,  and  in  terminating  the  war,  if  possible,  by  a  single 
blow.  The  fortune  of  the  royalists  was  now  predominant.  In 
almost  every  attack  the  superiority  of  regular  discipline  had 
been  shown.  Washington  had  been  forced  to  quit  his  strong 
position  at  Kingsbridge,  in  New  York  Island,  and  had  saved  his 
army  by  retiring  towards  the  main  land  of  Connecticut.  He 
was  followed  by  the  English  general  as  soon  as  the  troops  could 
be  landed,  and  the  proper  reinforcements  had  arrived. 

After  some  ineffectual  skirmishing,  both  armies  met  at  a  place 
called  the  White  Plains  ;  the  royalists  began  the  assault,  and 
made  such  an  impression  on  the  American  lines  that  Washing- 
ton was  compelled  again  to  retreat.  He  withdrew  in  good  or- 
der, and  occupied  an  advantageous  post  at  a  considerable  dis- 
tance from  that  which  he  had  just  abandoned.  But  Sir  William 
Howe,  finding  himself  unable  to  bring  on  a  general  action,  re- 
linquished the  pursuit,  and  employed  his  troops  during  the  rest 
of  the  campaign,  in  reducing  and  taking  possession  of  the  forts 
58  2  0 


458 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


SIR    HENRY    CLINTON. 


which  the  enemy  still  retained  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York.  In 
this  he  succeeded  to  his  utmost  wish ;  the  Jerseys  were  laid 
open  to  the  incursions  of  the  British  forces,  and  if  the  Americans 
had  not  seized  the  boats,  and  removed  them  to  a  distance,  Phila- 
delphia itself  must  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  royal  army. 
In  other  parts  of  the  continent,  the  success  of  the  British  was 
equally  great.  Sir  Henry  Clinton  took  possession  of  Rhode 
Island  without  losing  a  man.  The  American  fleet  under  Com- 
modore Hopkins  was  obliged  to  remain  in  the  river  Providence, 
entirely  useless.  In  Canada,  General  Burgoyne,  who  had  al- 
ready distinguished  himself  against  the  provincials,  and  forced 
them  to  retreat  across  Lake  Champlain  to  Crown  Point,  ordered 


CAMPAIGN   OF   1776.  459 

A  number  of  ships  to  be  built ;  and  attacking  those  of  the  re- 
publicans, commanded  by  Arnold,  defeated  them  with  great 
slaughter  ;  compelling  them  to  run  their  vessels  ashore,  and  to 
set  them  on  fire.  The  consequence  of  this  disaster  was,  that 
the  garrison  of  Crown  Point,  having  destroyed  or  carried  off 
their  provisions  and  military  stores,  retired  to  Ticonderoga. 

In  the  midst  of  these  calamitous  events,  the  spirit  of  Wash- 
ington remained  unbroken.  Though  his  soldiers  had  deserted  him 
in  great  numbers,  and  though  Charles  Lee,  one  of  the  ablest  of  the 
provincial  generals,  had  been  taken  prisoner,  he  never  despaired 
of  success.  He  had  frequently  written  to  the  congress,  and 
represented  to  that  body  the  condition  of  his  army.  It  was 
originally  composed  of  a  loose  militia,  and  of  volunteers  from  the 
different  provinces,  once  full  of  patriotism,  and  eager  to  engage ; 
but  now,  dispirited  by  misfortune,  and  ready  to  abandon  their 
general  on  the  first  appearance  of  the  king's  troops.  In  addi- 
tion to  this,  the  time  during  which  the  militia  were  bound  to 
serve  had  almost  expired.  The  congress,  therefore,  determined 
to  recruit  the  army,  by  offering  a  bounty  in  land  to  all  those 
who  would  enrol  their  names,  and  pledge  themselves  to  continue 
in  the  field  during  the  remainder  of  the  war.  Their  efforts 
were  nobly  seconded  by  the  zeal  and  activity  of  the  commander- 
in-chief.  He  kept  his  troops  constantly  employed;  and  being 
successful  in  many  of  the  skirmishes  in  which  they  were  engaged, 
and  reinforced  by  numbers  of  their  countrymen,  the  soldiers  be- 
gan to  resume  their  wonted  courage,  and  to  be  animated  with 
better  hopes.  When  the  English  approached  Philadelphia,  the 
American  general  had  thrown  himself  into  that  city,  and 
strengthened  it  by  every  method  in  his  power.  The  royal 
army  now  lay  in  cantonments  at  some  distance  from  the  place ; 
they  occupied  a  great  extent  of  country,  and  one  of  the  divi- 
sions, consisting  of  the  Hessians  in  the  king's  service,  was  sta- 
tioned at  Trenton,  about  thirty  miles  from  the  American  capital. 
This  division  Washington  resolved  to  attack,  and,  if  possible,  to 
surprise.  Accordingly,  he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  body 
of  his  troops;  and  after  crossing  the  Delaware  and  marching 
all  night,  with  the  utmost  expedition  which  the  roads  would 
allow,  he  fell  upon  the  enemy,  who  had  not  the  slightest  intelli- 
gence of  his  approach,  and  routed  them  with  great  slaughter. 
Colonel  Rawle,  who  commanded  the  royalists  in  that  quarter,  did 


4  no 


INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 


WASHINGTON    CROSSING    THE    DELAWARE. 


every  thing  "which  could  be  expected  from  an  officer  at  once 
brave  and  accustomed  to  military  operations;  but  the  attack 
was  sudden  and  impetuous,  and  directed  by  Washington  him- 
self; the  Hessians  gave  way  on  all  sides;  their  artillery  was 
seized,  and  one  thousand  of  their  best  troops  remained  prison- 
ers of  war. 

Some  of  the  colonial  reinforcements  having  at  length  arrived, 
the  provincial  army  not  only  increased  in  numbers,  but  im- 
proved in  courage  and  zeal.  Emboldened  by  his  success, 
Washington  resolved  to  leave  Philadelphia,  and  to  make  another 
attempt  against  the  British  forces.  In  consequence  of  this  de- 
termination, he  advanced  with  great  secrecy  towards  Maiden- 
head-town, situated  between  Trenton  and  Princeton,  where 
three  regiments,  under  Colonel  Mawhood,  had  taken  post ;  and, 
attacking  the  royalists  on  their  march,  he  threw  them  into  con- 
fusion, and  obliged  them  to  retreat  with  considerable  loss.  The 
British  troops,  astonished  at  the  exertions  of  the  American 
commander,  whose  affairs  they  supposed  to  be  desperate,  with- 
drew towards  Brunswick,  in  order  to  prevent  that  town,  and  the 
stores  which  it  contained,  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
provincial  army.  Washington  lost  no  time  in  availing  himself 
of  their  retreat.  He  divided  his  troops  into  small  bodies,  which, 
though  dispersed  over  an  extensive  country,  could  be  united 


2o2 


CAMPAIGN   OF   1776. 


463 


without  difficulty ;  and,  by  liis  activity,  vigilance,  and  skill,  he 
soon  regained  possession  of  all  the  important  places. 

Thus  terminated  the  campaign  of  1776,  and  not  altogether 
unfavourably  to  the  American  interest :  for  though  the  provin- 
cial troops  had  often  been  worsted,  and  still  more  frequently 
obliged  to  retreat,  yet  they  prosecuted  their  design  of  harassing 
the  enemy  with  great  success  ;  and  while  the  royalists  kept 
possession  of  New  York,  they  were  constrained  to  act  with  as 
much  circumspection  as  if  Washington  and  the  whole  force  of 
the  colonists  had  besieged  them  in  that  city. 


GENERAL    CHARLES    LEE. 


464 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 


GENERAL    HOWE. 


CAMPAIGN   OF  1777. 


jHE  next  campaign  opened  'with  considerable  indi- 
cations of  vigour  on  the  part  of  Sir  William  Howe. 
After  a  number  of  predatory  excursions,  in  which 
some  forts  were  reduced  and  magazines  destroyed, 
that  general  resolved  to  make  an  attempt  on  Phi- 
It  was  at  first  thought  that  this  could  be  done  by 
marching  through  the  Jerseys ;  but  Washington,  now  in  posses- 
sion of  the  open  country,  and  strongly  reinforced,  had  taken 
his  measures  so  effectually  that  it  was  declared  to  be  impracti- 
cable.    It  was  therefore  determined  to  approach  Philadelphia 


ladelphia. 


CAMPAIGN  OF  1777.  465 

by  sea.  The  expedition,  led  by  the  British  general  in  person, 
sailed  on  the  23d  of  July  from  Sandy  Hook  ;  on  the  29th,  the 
troops  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware ;  but  having  re- 
ceived intelligence,  that  the  navigation  of  that  river  was  effec- 
tually obstructed,  they  proceeded  to  Chesapeake  bay,  in  Mary- 
land, from  which  they  could  in  a  short  time  reach  the  capital  of 
Pennsylvania.  At  length,  sailing  up  the  Elk  as  far  as  was  prac- 
ticable, the  royal  army,  to  the  number  of  eighteen  thousand 
effective  men,  landed  without  opposition.  On  the  news  of  their 
arrival  in  the  Chesapeake,  Washington  gave  immediate  orders 
for  all  the  colonial  troops  to  join  him  without  delay ;  and  ad- 
vanced by  rapid  marches,  to  check  the  progress  of  Howe.  His 
exertions,  however,  for  that  purpose,  were  not  effectual ;  and  it 
was  perceived,  that  a  battle,  which  would  decide  the  fate  of  the 
American  capital,  was  unavoidable.  The  royal  army  had 
pushed  forward  towards  the  Brandywine,  on  the  opposite  side 
of  which  the  provincials  were  stationed  ;  the  river  was  fordable, 
and  could  therefore  present  no  effective  obstacle  to  a  general 
engagement.  This  was  ardently  sought  by  the  English  com- 
mander ;  and,  in  his  present  circumstances,  it  was  not  avoided 
by  Washington.  On  the  morning  of  the  11th  of  September, 
the  king's  troops  advanced  towards  Chadd's  Ford ;  various  ma- 
noeuvres and  skirmishing  there  took  place,  and  with  varied  suc- 
cess ;  till  about  four  in  the  evening,  when  the  action  began  be- 
tween the  main  strength  of  the  contending  forces.  The  right 
wing  of  the  Americans  was  thrown  into  confusion  at  the  very 
commencement  of  the  attack ;  and,  before  Washington  could 
lead  his  battalions  to  its  support,  the  whole  line  gave  way  ;  the 
rout  became  general,  and  night  alone  saved  the  provincials  from 
a  total  defeat. 

This  victory,  on  the  part  of  the  British,  opened  their  way  to 
Philadelphia.  Accordingly,  a  short  time  after  it  was  gained, 
Sir  William  Howe  took  possession  of  that  city ;  but  the  troops, 
during  their  march,  were  incessantly  annoyed  by  Washington  ; 
who  hung  upon  their  rear,  cut  off  their  detached  parties,  and 
showed  them,  that  though  he  had  been  compelled  to  retreat,  he 
was  not  overcome.  In  the  whole  conduct  of  this  extraordinary 
man,  we  are  forced  to  admire  the  prudence,  perseverance,  and 
activity  which  marked  his  character.  He  had  been  repulsed  in 
almost  every  attack  where  a  large  body  of  the  provincials  had 
59 


466 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY 


-cdm 


BATTLE    OF    GERMANTOWN. 


been  engaged  with  the  enemy ;  his  troops  had  deserted  him  in 
great  numbers,  and  on  the  most  important  occasions  ;  and  he 
had  frequently  been  distressed  by  the  want  of  military  stores ; 
yet,  notwithstanding  these  adverse  circumstances,  he  made  head 
against  an  army  of  regular  troops,  commanded  by  a  general  of 
acknowledged  ability,  well  disciplined,  and  provided  with  all  the 
means  of  successful  warfare.  No  sooner  had  the  English  gene- 
ral taken  possession  of  Philadelphia  with  a  part  of  his  forces, 
and  stationed  the  rest  at  Germantown,  than  Washington  formed 
the  resolution  of  attacking  the  division  at  the  latter  place.  In 
this  attempt  also  he  was  unfortunate;  the  British  had  early 
notice  of  his  approach  ;  and  he  was  obliged  to  retire  with  very 
considerable  loss.  But  such  was  his  unconquerable  spirit,  and 
so  firm  his  conviction  that  the  measures  which  he  pursued 
would  at  length  bring  the  war  to  a  favourable  issue,  that,  in  his 
letters  to  the  congress,  he  exhorted  them  to  perseverance;  and 
rejected  every  offer  towards  an  accommodation,  but  that  which 
acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  United  States.  The 
English  general,  now  in  possession  of  Philadelphia,  employed 
himself  for  some  time  in  taking  or  destroying  the  forts  on  the 
Delaware.  The  principal  of  these  were  Mud  Island  and  Red- 
bank.     Aided  by  three  ships  of  the  line,  and  well  supported  by 


CAMPAIGN   OF   1777. 


467 


BATTLE    OP    RED  BANK. 


the  officers  who  executed  his  commands,  he,  after  a  sturdy  re- 
sistance from  the  garrison  at  Redbank,  at  length  succeeded  in 
reducing  the  forts ;  and  many  of  the  ships  belonging  to  the  pro- 
vincials either  fell  into  his  hands,  or  were  driven  ashore  and 
burnt  by  their  possessors. 

In  the  northern  provinces,  the  campaign  wore  an  aspect  less 
friendly  to  the  royal  interests.  An  expedition  to  New  England 
had  been  projected  by  the  ministry  in  Europe,  as  the  most 
effectual  scheme  for  reducing  the  colonies  to  obedience.  An 
army  of  seven  thousand  chosen  troops  had  been  put  under  the 
orders  of  General  Burgoyne  :  these  were  to  be  assisted  by 
levies  from  Quebec  ;  and  means  were  used  to  engage  the  In- 
dians of  Canada  in  the  service  of  Great  Britian.  The  first  at- 
tempts of  Burgoyne  were  as  successful  as  the  condition  of  his 
army  entitled  the  ministry  to  expect.  The  Indians,  gained  by 
presents,  or  stimulated  by  the  hope  of  plunder,  joined  him  in 
considerable  bodies  ;  and  to  the  honour  of  the  British  com- 
mander, we  must  add,  that,  in  his  first  address  to  those  new 
allies,  he  exhorted  them  to  kill  none  but  such  as  appeared  in 
arms  against  them,  and  to  spare  the  women  and  children  whom 


468 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


RUINS    OF    FORT    TICONDEROOA. 


the  fortune  of  war  might  put  into  their  hands.  On  the  2d  of 
July,  the  English  army  encamped  on  both  sides  of  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  at  a  short  distance  from  Ticonderoga.  To  this  strong 
fortress  the  Americans  had  retired  at  the  end  of  the  preceding 
year  ;  and  now  it  was  garrisoned  with  about  three  thousand  men, 
and  defended  by  the  provincial  general  St.  Clair.  The  ap- 
proaches of  the  British  were  rapid  and  decisive.  Soon  after 
their  appearance  before  the  American  works,  they  took  posses- 
sion of  Sugar-hill ;  an  eminence  which  overlooked  the  fortifica- 
tions, and  enabled  them  to  place  their  batteries  to  great  ad- 
vantage, but  which  the  enemy  had  imagined  it  was  impossible 
to  ascend.  On  the  5th,  every  step  had  been  taken  in  order  to 
render  the  investment  complete.  St.  Clair,  however,  conscious 
of  his  inability  to  defend  the  place,  and  anxious  at  the  same 
time  to  prevent  the  troops  which  he  commanded  from  surren- 
dering themselves  prisoners  of  war,  abandoned  the  works,  and 
retreated  over  Mount  Independence  to  Charlestown,  and  thence 
to  Skeensborough,  in  the  vicinity  of  Lake  George.     Previous 


CAMPAIGN   OF   1777. 


469 


GENERAL    ST.    CLAIR. 


to  his  departure,  he  had  ordered  the  baggage  and  military  stores 
to  be  sent  bj  water  to  the  same  place ;  but  the  vessels  which 
were  employed  for  that  purpose  were  attacked  by  the  English 
ships,  and  either  captured  or  rendered  unfit  for  service ;  and, 
in  consequence  of  this  disaster,  the  Americans  set  fire  to  their 
boats  and  fortifications  at  Skeensborough.  On  land  the  royal- 
ists were  equally  successful ;  Colonel  Francis  and  a  body  of 
the  provincial  troops  were  defeated  with  great  slaughter  by 
General  Reidesel ;  and,  by  the  skilful  manoeuvres  of  Burgoyne, 
St.  Clair  was  prevented  from  reaching  Fort  Anne.  An  engage- 
ment then  took  place  in  the  woods,  in  which  the  Americans 
were  routed,  and  compelled  to  retire  to  Fort  Edward  on  the 
Hudson. 

The  loss  of  Ticonderoga  was  one  for  which  the  United  States 
were  not  prepared,  and  which  was  severely  felt  through  all  the 
colonies.  Neither  the  strength  of  the  invading  army  nor  the 
weakness  of  the  garrison  appears  to  have  been  understood.  It 
was  universally  believed,  that  the  whole  force  of  Canada  did  not 
amount  to  six  thousand  men ;  and,  therefore,  no  adequate 
measures  had  been  taken,  in  order  to  enable  St.  Clair  and  the 
troops  under  his  command  to  resist  such  an  army  as  advanced 
against  them. 

2P 


470 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 


GENERAL    STARKE. 


Burgoyne,  elated  with  his  success,  and  hitherto  uninstructed 
by  adverse  fortune,  proceeded  with  great  ostentation  of  zeal  and 
activity  to  finish  the  campaign.  After  waiting  at  Skeensbo- 
rough  for  the  arrival  of  tents  and  provisions,  and  spending  a 
long  time  in  clearing  the  ground,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  pas- 
sage of  his  troops,  he  reached  Fort  Edward  about  the  end  of 
July.  In  the  interval  afforded  by  this  delay,  General  Schuyler 
recruited  the  shattered  battalions  of  the  Americans,  and,  uniting 
the  parties  which  were  stationed  in  different  quarters,  convinced 
the  British  that  much  was  still  to  be  done.  The  royal  army 
now  suffered  greatly  from  the  want  of  provisions.  They  had 
attempted  to  seize  the  magazines  at  Bennington  ;  but  the  de- 
tachments under  Colonels  Baum  and  Breyman,  who  were  em- 
ployed for  that  purpose,  were  utterly  defeated  by  General 
Starke,  to  whom  the  defence  of  the  place  was  intrusted.     The 


CAMPAIGN   OF   1777.  473 

expedition  on  the  Mohawk  river,  undertaken  by  Colonel  St. 
Leger,  had  likewise  failed.  Notwithstanding  these  misfortunes, 
however,  Burgoyne,  fatally  for  the  cause  in  which  he  was  en- 
gaged, continued  to  advance ;  and  having  collected  with  great 
care  and  indefatigable  exertion  provisions  for  thirty  days,  he 
encamped  on  the  heights  and  plains  of  Saratoga,  resolved  to 
decide  by  one  vigorous  effort  the  fortune  of  the  campaign.  On 
the  17th  of  September,  the  English  army  was  only  four  miles 
distant  from  that  of  the  provincials,  commanded  by  General 
Gates.  This  officer,  leaving  his  camp  in  the  islands,  had  been 
joined  by  all  the  troops  destined  for  the  northern  provinces,  and, 
marching  towards  Stillwater  with  the  utmost  despatch,  showed 
no  inclination  to  avoid  an  engagement.  Accordingly,  when 
the  British  appeared,  without  waiting  for  the  assault,  he  attacked 
their  centre,  while  Arnold,  who  commanded  on  the  left  of  the 
provincials,  made  head  against  the  right  of  the  enemy.  A 
fierce  encounter  then  ensued  ;  and,  had  not  the  artillery  arrived 
during  the  hottest  of  the  action  and  checked  the  Americans, 
the  discipline  of  the  British  must  have  yielded  to  the  valour 
and  impetuosity  of  the  colonial  troops.  In  this  battle,  the  roy- 
alists lost  only  three  hundred  men,  while  fifteen  hundred  of  their 
antagonists  were  either  killed  or  wounded ;  yet  the  English 
generals  were  astonished  at  the  resolution  which  the  Americans 
had  displayed,  and  began  to  anticipate,  with  sorrow,  the  final 
issue  of  their  exertions. 

The  condition  of  the  army  under  Burgoyne  was  now  almost 
desperate.  Their  stock  of  provisions  was  nearly  exhausted ; 
the  Indians,  their  allies,  who  had  marked  the  service  with 
bloodshed  and  cruelty,  withdrew  from  them  in  great  numbers, 
and,  to  complete  the  mortifications  of  the  general,  he  had  re- 
ceived no  intelligence  from  Clinton,  whose  assistance  or  co-ope- 
ration he  had  long  expected.  After  some  days,  however,  a  let- 
ter from  that  officer  arrived,  informing  Burgoyne  that  he 
intended  to  make  a  diversion  in  his  favour ;  but,  as  this  aid  was 
distant  and  dubious,  the  communication  of  the  design  had  little 
effect  in  raising  the  spirits  of  the  soldiers,  or  animating  their 
general  with  confidence. 

In  their  present  distressful  circumstances,  it  was  obvious  that 
nothing  but  a  victory  could  save  the  royalists  from  the  igno- 
miny of  surrendering  at  discretion.     Accordingly,  on  the  7th 
60  2  p  2 


474 


INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN   HISTORY- 


GENERAL    GATES. 


of  October,  the  English  general  moved  with  his  whole  strength 
towards  the  camp  of  the  provincials.  His  design  was  quickly 
perceived  by  Gates,  the  American  commander,  who  resolved  to 
attack  him  without  loss  of  time.  The  assault  was  impetuous 
and  bloody  ;  but  the  English,  resisting  for  a  while,  at  last  gave 
way,  and  Fraser,  one  of  their  ablest  generals,  was  killed  on  the 
spot.  Arnold  pressed  hard  on  the  right,  where  Burgoyne  com- 
manded in  person  ;  and  though  the  king's  troops  in  that  quarter 
displayed  their  wonted  courage,  the  British  were  compelled  to 
retreat,  and,  with  the  utmost  difficulty,  regained  their  camp. 
They  were  pursued  to  their  intrenchments  by  Arnold  and  fu- 
riously assaulted ;  but  that  officer  having  received  a  dangerous 
wound  at  the  very  moment  when  his  division  was  entering  the 
lines,  the  Americans  were  forced  to  retire.  On  the  left,  the 
provincials  were  still  more  successful.  The  Germans  were 
routed  with  great  loss ;    Colonel  Breyman  fell,   and  all  the 


CAMPAIGN   OF    1777. 


475 


BURGOTNE'8    ENCAMPMENT    ON    THE    HUDSON. 

artillery  and  baggage  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  colonial 
army. 

This  was  the  most  fatal  disaster  which  the  English  had  expe- 
rienced since  the  attack  at  Bunker's  Hill.  The  number  of 
killed  and  wounded,  both  of  the  Germans  and  British,  was 
very  great ;  but  the  chief  misfortune  was,  that  the  Americans 
were  now  enabled  so  to  arrange  their  posts  as  to  enclose  the 
army  and  effectually  to  prevent  their  escape.  There  was  only 
one  road  by  which  it  was  possible  for  them  to  retreat.  It  was, 
therefore,  resolved  to  repair  the  bridges  on  the  way  to  Fort 
Edward ;  to  decamp  suddenly  and  march  towards  that  place  in 
the  night,  and,  forcing  the  passages  of  the  Hudson,  to  effect  a 
union  Avith  Sir  Henry  Clinton  and  the  troops  under  his  com- 
mand. It  was  resolved  also  that  the  baggage  should  be  left, 
and  that  the  soldiers  should  carry  their  provisions  attached  to 
their  knapsacks.  All  these  resolutions  indicate  the  extreme 
necessity  to  which  the  British  were  reduced.  The  design,  how- 
ever was  found  to  be  impracticable.     Intelligence  was  received 


47G 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


bueooyne's  retreat  ON  THE  HUDSON. 


that  the  Americans  had  erected  strong  batteries  at  the  fords ; 
that  they  had  taken  possession  of  an  eminence  between  Fort 
Edward  and  Fort  George,  from  which,  it  was  said,  they  could 
annoy  the  army  on  their  march ;  that  their  numbers  were  daily 
increasing ;  and  that  the  fresh  troops,  as  well  as  their  asso- 
ciates, were  animated  with  all  the  zeal  of  men  ardent  in  the 
cause  of  freedom  and  their  country.  The  state  of  the  royal 
army  and  of  its  general  was  now  truly  deplorable.  Burgoyne 
himself  had  projected  the  expedition.  An  officer  of  tried  abili- 
ties had  been  removed  to  make  way  for  him ;  and  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  campaign,  his  endeavours  had  been  followed 
with  success.  But  a  mournful  reverse  of  circumstances  had 
taken  place ;  he  was  deserted  by  his  allies ;  his  provisions  were 
exhausted ;  he  was  enclosed  by  an  enemy  rejoicing  in  his  mis- 
fortunes and  anticipating  his  fall.  "In  these  circumstances," 
says  he  in  a  letter  to  Lord  George  Germain,  "I  called  a  coun- 
cil of  all  the  generals,  field-officers,  and  captains  commanding 
corps,  and,  by  their  unanimous  concurrence  and  advice,  I  was 
induced  to  open  a  treaty  with  Major-general  Gates."     In  con- 


CAMPAIGN   OF   1777. 


477 


GENERAL     BUR 


sequence  of  this  treaty,  the  British  forces,  to  the  number  of  six 
thousand  men,  laid  down  their  arms,  having  pledged  themselves 
not  to  serve  in  America  during  the  war,  and  stipulated  that 
they  should  be  permitted  to  return  to  their  native  country. 
Such  was  the  agreement,  and  to  this  agreement  the  congress 
ought  unquestionably  to  have  adhered  ;  but  when  the  trans- 
ports appeared  in  the  harbour  of  Boston,  and  the  troops  were 
preparing  to  embark,  the  American  rulers,  suspecting  that  they 
might  be  employed  against  their  interests  in  other  parts  of  the 
continent,  would  not  permit  them  to  remove  till  the  treaty 
should  be  ratified  by  the  English  cabinet.  The  surrender  of 
Burgoyne  led  to  the  immediate  evacuation  of  Ticonderoga  and 
Mount  Independence  ;  and  the  provincials  saw  themselves  once 
more  sole  masters  of  the  north. 


478 


INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 


GENERAL    HENRY    LEE. 


CAMPAIGNS  OF  1778  AND  1789. 


HE  congress,  however,  not  satis- 
fied with  the  exertions  of  the 
provinces  in  behalf  of  their 
rights,  had  recourse  to  the  aid 
of  foreign  powers.  In  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  1778,  they 
entered  into  an  alliance  with 
the  French,  who,  as  the  rivals 
of  the  British,  and  smarting 
with  the  loss  of  their  possessions  in  Canada,  eagerly  embraced 
the  proposals  of  the  American  states.  On  the  6th  of  February, 
the  articles  of  agreement  between  the  two  nations  were  formally 
signed.  It  was  declared  in  these  articles,  1.  That  the  princi- 
pal end  of  the  treaty  was  to  support,  in  an  effectual  manner, 
the  independency  of  the  united  colonies ;  2.  That  if  Great 
Britain  should,  in  consequence  of  the  treaty,  proceed  to  hostili- 
ties against  France,  the  two  nations  would  assist  each  other  as 


CAMPAIGNS   OF  1778  AND  1789.  479 

circumstances  might  require  ;  3.  That  if  those  places  in  North 
America,  still  subject  to  the  British  crown,  should  be  conquered 
by  the  United  States,  they  should  either  be  confederated  with 
them  or  subjected  to  their  jurisdiction ;  4.  That  if  any  of  the 
islands  in  the  West  Indies  should  be  taken  by  the  French,  they 
should  be  considered  as  the  property  of  that  nation ;  5.  That 
no  formal  treaty  with  Great  Britain  should  be  concluded  by 
the  French  or  Americans,  acting  separately,  and  that  both  par- 
ties would  continue  in  arms  till  the  independence  of  the  United 
States  should  be  acknowledged  ;  6.  That  such  powers  of  Europe 
or  America  as  had  received  injuries  from  Great  Britain  should 
be  invited  to  engage  in  the  common  cause ;  7.  That  the  United 
States  guarantied  to  France  all  the  possessions  in  the  West 
Indies  which  she  might  be  able  to  conquer ;  and  that  France, 
in  her  turn,  guarantied  the  unconditional  independence  of  the 
United  States,  and  their  supreme  authority  over  every  country 
which  they  possessed,  or  which  they  might  acquire  during  the 
continuance  of  the  war.       • 

When  this  treaty  was  notified  to  the  court  of  London,  it  pro- 
duced an  immediate  declaration  of  war  against  the  French. 
The  English  parliament,  in  their  address  to  the  king,  expressed 
their  resolution  of  adhering  to  him  in  all  his  endeavours  to 
subdue  the  revolted  colonies,  and  promised  to  assist  him  with 
the  whole  strength  of  the  empire.  The  address,  however,  was 
not  voted  without  a  considerable  difference  of  opinion.  The 
members  in  opposition  loudly  affirmed  that  the  war  was  equally 
tyrannical  and  unjust ;  that  the  ministry,  by  their  ignorance 
and  ill  success,  had  forfeited  the  confidence  of  the  British  na- 
tion ;  that  the  Americans  were  struggling  for  independence, 
and  would  at  last  attain  it ;  and  that  every  attempt  to  compel 
them  to  obedience  would  assuredly  be  fruitless.  Of  the  injus- 
tice of  the  war,  from  its  commencement  to  the  present  time, 
the  ministry  themselves,  by  their  wavering  and  indecisive  mea- 
sures, appear  to  have  been  conscious.  They  now  introduced 
into  parliament  a  bill  for  reconciling  the  differences  between  the 
Americans  and  Great  Britain ;  and  should  the  terms  which 
they  offered  be  rejected  by  the  United  States,  they  declared 
their  fixed  and  unalterable  purpose  of  reducing  them  to  com- 
pliance by  force  of  arms.  Commissioners  were  therefore  de- 
spatched to  the  congress,  in  order  to  communicate  to  them  the 


480  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   IIISTORY. 

proposals  of  the  English  administration  ;  but,  as  they  arrived 
immediately  after  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne  and  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  treaty  with  France,  they  were  received  with  the 
utmost  indifference,  and,  in  many  places,  with  the  utmost  con- 
tempt. The  general  answer  was,  that  the  day  of  reconciliation 
was  past,  and  that  Great  Britain,  by  her  tyranny  and  haughti- 
ness, had  extinguished  all  filial  regard  in  the  breasts  of  the 
American  people.  The  congress  resolved  without  delay,  that, 
as  a  political  body,  they  would  not  receive  the  commissioners 
till  their  independence  was  acknowledged ;  that  whoever  made 
a  separate  agreement  with  Britain  was  an  enemy  to  his  coun- 
try ;  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  all  the  states  to  exert  them- 
selves to  the  utmost  in  recruiting  the  army,  or  in  adding  to  the 
number  of  its  battalions. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  season  for  action  was  approaching. 
While  the  congress  was  yet  deliberating  on  the  answer  which 
they  should  give  to  the  proposals  from  England,  Sir  Henry 
Clinton,  now  raised  to  the  chief  command,  evacuated  Philadel- 
phia. On  his  march  from  that  place,  he  was  followed  and 
harassed  by  the  provincial  troops,  whom  Washington  had  di- 
rected to  obstruct  his  progress  ;  but  Lee,  the  American  general, 
having  failed  in  an  attempt  to  seize  the  baggage  of  the  royal- 
ists, they  effected  their  retreat,  were  conveyed  on  board  the 
ships,  and  joined  their  countrymen  at  New  York.  For  his  mis- 
conduct on  this  occasion,  as  well  as  his  insolence  towards  the 
commander-in-chief,  Lee  was  afterwards  tried  by  a  court-mar- 
tial, and  sentenced  to  a  temporary  suspension  from  his  office  as 
a  general  in  the  army — a  punishment  which,  though  slight, 
operated  with  a  powerful  effect  throughout  the  colonial  forces. 

While  the  British  ships  were  employed  in  transporting  the 
troops  from  Sandy  Hook  to  New  York,  intelligence  was  re- 
ceived that  a  strong  fleet,  under  the  orders  of  Count  D'Estaign, 
had  arrived  from  France.  It  consisted  of  twelve  ships  of  the 
line,  besides  frigates,  and  had  six  thousand  marines,  or  soldiers, 
on  board.  To  oppose  this  force,  the  British  had  only  six  ships 
of  the  line — three  of  fifty  guns,  and  a  few  vessels  of  smaller 
size ;  yet  they  posted  themselves  so  advantageously  before  the 
entrance  into  New  York,  that  the  French  admiral  thought  it 
would  be  hazardous  to  attack  them,  and  prudently  declined  an 
engagement.     The  arrival  of  foreign  succours  was  the  occasion 


CAMPAIGNS   OF  1778  AND  1789. 


481 


COUNT     D'ESTAIGN. 


of  much  joy  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States.  The 
congress  immediately  wrote  to  Washington,  instructing  him  to 
co-operate  with  D'Estaign,  and  authorizing  him  to  employ  the 
militia  from  New  Hampshire  to  New  Jersey,  as  well  as  the  mi- 
litia of  these  provinces,  for  whatever  undertakings  he  might 
judge  to  be  necessary.  But  the  success  of  the  allied  powers 
was  not  equal  to  the  magnitude  of  their  preparations.  An 
expedition  was  agreed  on,  and  Sullivan,  the  American  general, 
landed  on  Rhode  Island  with  ten  thousand  men,  resolved  to  lay 
siege  to  Newport,  the  capital  of  that  state.  But  Pigot,  to 
whom  Sir  Henry  Clinton  had  intrusted  the  defence  of  the  place, 
61  2  Q  2 


482 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


GENERAL    BCL1IVAN. 


had  fortified  himself  so  strongly  that  the  Americans  found  it 
impossible  to  succeed  without  the  aid  of  the  fleet.  D'Estaign, 
however,  shattered  by  a  storm,  and  dreading  the  approach  of 
the  English  admiral,  withdrew  from  the  harbour  and  sailed  for 
Boston,  in  order  to  refit.  In  consequence  of  his  departure, 
Sullivan  was  obliged  to  retire,  and,  the  garrison  of  Newport 
rushing  forth  and  pressing  hard  upon  him,  the  provincial  troops 
were  thrown  into  confusion,  and  with  no  little  difficulty  accom- 
plished their  retreat.  The  conduct  of  D'Estaign  at  Rhode 
Island  gave  the  highest  offence  to  the  people  of  New  England, 
who  did  not  hesitate  to  express  their  doubts  of  the  admiral's 
courage.  It  produced  a  quarrel  between  him  and  Sullivan, 
which  Washington  long  attempted  to  heal ;  and  the  resent- 
ment occasioned  by  these  differences,  in  the  minds  of  the 
French,  contributed  greatly  to  diminish  their  exertions  in  be- 
half of  the  colonies. 

The  war  was  now  prosecuted  with  varied  success.  The 
whole  province  of  Georgia  was  reduced  by  the  English.  Caro- 
lina was  invaded,  and  Charleston,  its  principal  city,  had  nearly 
fallen   into   the  hands  of  the  royalists.     Several  expeditions 


CAMPAIGNS   OF   1778  AND  1789. 


483 


GENERAL    SCHUYLER. 


against  the  provinces  in  North  America  were  likewise  success- 
ful. On  the  other  hand,  the  Spaniards,  joining  in  the  confede- 
racy against  Britain,  made  an  irruption  into  Florida,  and  took 
possession  of  that  country  without  opposition.  Not  a  few  of 
the  states  of  Europe  contemplated  the  exertions  of  the  Ameri- 
cans with  a  favourable  eye.  And  the  Indians  who,  at  the  in- 
stigation of  the  British,  had  molested  the  provinces  by  conti- 
nual depredations,  were  effectually  and  completely  subdued  by 
General  Sullivan ;  their  villages  were  burnt,  and  their  planta- 
tions destroyed ;  so  that  when  the  invading  army  had  quitted 
the  district  occupied  by  the  savages,  "  there  was  not  a  house, 
nor  a  field  of  corn,  nor  a  fruit  tree  left  upon  the  ground ;"  nor 
was  there  an  Indian  to  be  seen  throughout  the  whole  tract. 

During  the  whole  of  the  American  war,  there  appears  to 
have  been  one  capital  and  fatal  error  on  the  part  of  the  British 
generals.  They  never  collected  their  forces  and  advanced 
against  the  Americans  with  their  whole  strength,  a  mode  of  con- 
duct which  would  have  brought  the  war  to  a  point,  and  enabled 
their  discipline  and  skill  to  operate  with  decisive  and  awful 


484 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


execution  against  the  rude  valour  of  the  provincial  troops.  Oh 
the  contrary,  they  divided  their  forces  into  small  bodies ;  in- 
vaded the  colonies  in  separate  detachments ;  gave  the  Ameri- 
cans every  opportunity  of  harassing  them  and  cutting  off  their 
supplies,  and  were  finally  constrained  to  yield  to  the  perseve- 
rance and  boldness  of  men  inferior  to  them  in  military  know- 
ledge, and  almost  destitute  of  those  advantages  which  influence  the 
success  of  military  operations.  This  error  of  the  British  com- 
manders was  perceived  by  Washington,  and  he  availed  himself 
of  it.  "From  your  accounts,"  says  he  to  Schuyler,  in  a  letter 
written  after  the  fall  of  Ticonderoga,  "  General  Burgoyne  ap- 
pears to  be  pursuing  that  line  of  conduct  which,  of  all  others, 
is  most  favourable  to  us.  I  mean,  acting  in  detachment.  This 
conduct  will  certainly  give  room  for  enterprise  on  our  side,  and 
expose  his  parties  to  great  hazard.  Could  we  be  so  happy  as 
to  cut  one  of  them  off,  though  it  should  not  exceed  four,  five, 
or  six  hundred  men,  it  would  inspirit  the  people  and  do  away 
much  of  their  anxiety." — Marshall's  Life  of  Washington^ 
vol.  iii.  p.  262. 


GENERAL    MARION. 


GENERAL   LINOOL  N. 


CAMPAIGNS   OF    1780   AND    1781 


487 


GENERAL    GREENE. 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   1780   AND  1781,  AND  CLOSE 
OF    THE  WAR. 


N  the  year  1780,  the  war  was  effectually 
transferred  to  the  southern  provinces. 
On  the  19th  of  February,  Sir  Henry  Clin- 
ton, who,  in  conjunction  with  Vice-admi- 
ral Arbuthnot,  had  left  New  York  some 
time  before,  appeared  off  Charleston ;  on 
the  20th  of  March,  the  English  squadron 
entered  the  harbour  of  that  city ;  and  on 
the  29th  of  the  same  month,  the  troops 
effected  a  landing  at  Charleston  Neck.  The  British  then  sum- 
moned the  town ;  but  Lincoln,  who  commanded  there,  under  the 


488  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

authority  of  the  United  States,  expressed  his  resolution  of  de- 
fending the  place.     In  framing  his  answer  to  the  summons  of 
the  English  general,  he  was  influenced  considerably  by  the  ex- 
pectation of  reinforcements  and  supplies  from  the  neighbouring 
provinces ;  these,  however,  came  in  very  slowly ;  and  a  body  of 
militia  which  was  proceeding  to  his  relief  was  attacked  and 
dispersed  by  Earl  Cornwallis  and  Colonel  Tarleton.     The  city 
was  now  invested  in  every  direction ;  Fort  Sullivan  was  in  pos- 
session of  the  royalists;   and  the  preparations  for  a  general 
assault  were  nearly  completed ;  when  Lincoln,  disappointed  in 
the  hope  of  obtaining  succour  from  without,  and  indifferently 
supported  by  the  troops  under  his  command,  agreed  to  the  pro- 
posals of  Clinton,  and  allowed  the  English,  under  General  Les- 
lie, to  march  into  the  place.     The  loss  of  Charleston  was  a 
severe  blow  to  the  American  interests ;   twenty-four  hundred 
and  eighty-seven  men  were  taken  prisoners,  besides  a  thousand 
sailors  in  arms ;  and  the  quantity  of  ordnance  and  military 
stores  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  king's  troops  was  not 
only  great,  but,  in  the  present  state  of  the  colonial  affairs, 
could  with  difficulty  be  spared.     Such,  however,  was  the  dispo- 
sition of  the  provinces,  and  such  the  aversion  to  the  English 
which  the  Americans  had  long  cherished  in  their  breasts,  that, 
instead  of  being  dispirited  by  their  misfortunes,  they  united 
with  greater  cordiality  and  firmness,  and  prompted  each  other 
to  more  vigorous  exertions.     It  is  true,  that,  after  the  surren- 
der of  Charleston,  the  English  general  issued  a  proclamation 
in  which  he  exhorted  the  people  to  return  to  their  allegiance, 
and  threatened  them  with  the  utmost  severity  of  punishment 
if  they  refused  to  comply ;  and  that  some  individuals  were 
found  who  petitioned  to  be  admitted  into  the  number  and  re- 
stored to  the  condition  of  British  subjects.     But  these  were 
regarded  by  the  majority  of  their  countrymen  as  the  slaves  of 
tyranny,  and  looked  upon  as  unworthy  to  be  enrolled  under  the 
same  banner,  or  to  fight  in  the  same  cause,  with  the  champions 
of  freedom. 

Amidst  the  ravages  and  desolation  of  war,  the  congress  were 
not  inattentive  to  the  arts  of  peace.  A  committee  of  their 
number  was  instructed  to  examine  the  ground,  as  yet  unoccu- 
pied, in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  to  choose  a  place  for  a 
building   where  the  representatives  of  the  American  people 


CAMPAIGNS   OF   1780  AND  1781 


489 


might  assemble  in  a  manner  suitable  to  their  dignity.  They 
determined  to  erect  a  statue  in  honour  of  General  Montgomery, 
who  had  fallen  at  Quebec,  and  authorized  Dr.  Franklin  to  agree 
with  an  artist  of  Paris  for  that  purpose;  they  established  a 
court  in  which  all  appeals  from  the  admiralty  to  the  United 
States,  relating  to  captures,  might  be  heard;  they  reformed 
the  currency,  and  arranged  their  finances,  so  that  the  army 
might  be  regularly  supplied  with  pay  and  clothing,  and  furnished 
with  every  thing  which  the  general  might  require.  They  cele- 
brated the  4th  of  July,  the  anniversary  of  their  independence, 
with  great  pomp ;  and,  on  the  same  day,  the  first  degrees  in 
the  arts  were  conferred  by  the  provost  and  masters  belonging 
to  the  college  at  Philadelphia.  On  this  occasion,  the  members 
of  congress,  the  chevalier  de  la  Luzerne,  minister  plenipoten- 
tiary from  the  French  king  to  the  United  States,  together  with 
other  persons  of  distinction,  were  present. 

Not  long  after  these  transactions,  a  second  fleet  arrived  at 

Rhode  Island  from  France.      This  fleet,  consisting  of  seven 

ships  of  the  line,  was  under  the  orders  of  M.  Ternay,  and  had 

on  board  six  thousand  men,  well  appointed  and  disciplined,  and 

62 


490  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

led  by  Rochainbeau,  an  officer  of  great  talents  and  experience. 
As  the  aid  which  the  Americans  had  now  received  was  both  un- 
expected and  considerable,  the  joy  which  it  occasioned  was  very 
great.  The  assembly  at  Rhode  Island  went  in  a  body  to  con- 
gratulate the  French  general  on  his  arrival,  and  he,  in  return, 
assured  them  that  the  troops  which  he  commanded  were  only 
the  first  division  of  a  larger  force,  which  the  king,  his  master, 
would  send  to  their  assistance.  No  sooner  was  it  communi- 
cated to  the  British  that  the  provincials  had  been  strengthened 
by  aid  from  Europe,  than  they  formed  a  scheme  in  order  to 
render  it  ineffectual.  It  was  agreed  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton  and 
the  English  admiral  to  make  an  attack  by  sea  and  land  on  the 
French  vessels  and  the  allied  troops  at  Rhode  Island.  But 
Washington,  having  received  intelligence  of  the  design,  passed 
the  North  River  with  an  army  of  twelve  thousand  men,  and, 
advancing  by  a  rapid  movement  to  Kingsbridge,  threatened 
with  a  siege  the  town  of  New  York,  where  Clinton  commanded 
in  person.  This  judicious  and  timely  movement  produced  the 
desired  effect.  The  English  general  immediately  altered  his 
plan,  and  ordered  his  troops  to  disembark  ;  in  consequence  of 
which,  the  Americans  likewise  withdrew  from  Kingsbridge,  and 
returned,  by  slow  marches,  to  their  former  station.  They  were 
soon  after  followed  by  General  Knyphausen,  who  attempted  to 
surprise  and  cut  off  their  advanced  posts.  In  this,  however,  he 
was  unsuccessful,  and,  having  set  fire  to  Springfield,  and  wasted 
the  neighbouring  country,  he  joined  the  main  army  at  New 
York. 

About  this  time,  General  Gates,  who  had  already  distin- 
guished himself  in  the  contest  with  Burgoyne,  was  appointed 
to  the  chief  command  of  the  provincial  forces  in  South  Caro- 
lina. He  was  opposed  by  the  Earl  Cornwallis  and  Colonel 
Tarleton,  officers  of  high  name  and  respectability,  whose  ser- 
vices, in  the  reduction  of  Charleston,  we  have  already  men- 
tioned. On  the  16th  of  August,  an  action  took  place  near 
Camden,  between  the  royal  army  and  that  of  the  Americans. 
Prior  to  this  action,  the  situation  of  the  king's  troops  was  ex- 
ceedingly critical.  The  position  at  Camden,  though  advan- 
tageous in  some  respects,  was  not  well  chosen  for  sustaining  an 
attack.  The  force  under  Cornwallis  did  not  exceed  two  thou- 
sand, while  that  of  the  provincials  was  more  than  double  that 


CAMPAIGNS   OF   1780  AND  1781. 


491 


BATTLE    OP    CAMDEN. 


number.  The  consequence  of  a  defeat  might  be  the  loss  of 
South  Carolina,  and  the  effect  of  a  victory  the  complete  esta- 
blishment of  the  royal  authority  in  that  extensive  province. 
General  Gates  was  advancing  with  rapidity,  and  intelligence 
was  received  that  it  was  the  design  of  that  commander  to 
attack  the  British  lines. 

In  these  circumstances,  the  skill  and  resolution  of  Cornwallis, 
and  the  decisive  bravery  of  Lord  Rawdon,  (afterward  Earl  Moira,) 
not  only  saved  the  English  from  defeat,,  but  enabled  them  to 
gain  a  signal  victory  over  the  provincial  troops.  On  the  even- 
ing of  the  15th,  the  British  general,  having  resolved  not  to 
wait  for  the  approach  of  the  Americans,  led  out  his  small  but 
determined  band,  in  order  to  attack  them ;  and  nearly  at  the 
same  moment  Gates  advanced  towards  Camden  with  a  similar 
intention.  The  two  armies  met  in  a  narrow  place,  where  the 
colonial  troops  could  not  avail  themselves  of  their  superior 
numbers.  The  English,  perceiving  the  advantage  which  the 
ground  afforded  them,  began  the  assault,  and  in  a  short  time 
the  action  became  general  and  warm.     The  onset  of  the  royal- 


492 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


BARON    DE    KALB. 


ists,  who  advanced  with  their  bayonets  fixed,  was  irresistibly 
impetuous  ;  the  provincial  militia,  lately  raised  and  strangers 
to  regular  service,  fin6t  gave  way,  and  the  continental  batta- 
lions, influenced  by  their  example,  yielded  on  all  sides,  and  fled 
in  the  utmost  disorder.  Many  of  the  colonists  fell  in  this  en- 
gagement, and  more  in  the  pursuit ;  one  thousand  men  were 
taken  prisoners,  and  seven  pieces  of  cannon,  together  with  all 
the  ammunition  and  stores  of  the  provincial  army,  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  English.  While  the  action  was  at  the  hottest, 
the  baron  de  Kalb,  a  Prussian  officer  in  the  American  service, 
distinguished  himself  by  the  heroic  valour  with  which  he  fought ; 
he  maintained  his  position  against  a  furious  assault  of  the 
enemy,  and  charged  them  at  the  head  of  the  battalion  which 


CAMPAIGNS   OF   1780  AND  1781.  493 

he  commanded,  till,  overpowered  by  the  English  horse  and 
wounded  in  eleven  parts  of  his  body,  he  gave  his  sword  to  a 
British  officer  who  was  near  him,  and  resigned  himself  a  pri- 
soner of  war.  From  the  royalists  he  received  every  attention 
which  it  was  in  their  power  to  bestow  ;  but  his  wounds  were 
mortal,  and  in  a  few  hours  he  expired.  The  last  moments  of 
this  gallant  soldier  were  spent  in  acknowledging  the  kindness 
of  the  English,  and  in  declaring  his  unqualified  approbation  of 
the  officers  and  men  who  had  fought  under  his  orders  or  fallen 
by  his  side.  And  the  congress  afterwards  ordered  a  monument 
to  be  erected  to  his  memory,  in  testimony  of  their  sense  of 
his  Avorth?  and  their  gratitude  for  his  services. 

But,  while  the  Americans  were  doomed  to  suffer  by  the  power 
of  their  enemies,  their  misfortunes  were  nearly  completed  by 
the  treachery  of  their  friends.  Arnold,  a  leading  man  in  Phi- 
ladelphia, governor  of  that  city  in  the  name  of  the  United 
States,  and  a  general  of  conspicuous  abilities,  was  induced  to 
quit  the  service  of  his  country  and  attach  himself  to  the  royal 
cause.  Different  motives  have  been  assigned  for  this  inglorious 
conduct.  It  has  been,  said  that  he  was  unfriendly  to  the  declara- 
tion of  independence,  and  disgusted  at  the  alliance  with  France ; 
and  it  has  been  urged,  with  greater  plausibility,  that  the  origin 
of  his  treachery  is  to  be  looked  for  in  the  fickleness  of  his  tem- 
per and  the  unfortunate  issue  of  the  speculations  in  which  he 
engaged.  He  had  been  accused  by  the  government  at  Phila- 
delphia for  the  appropriation  of  goods  belonging  to  the  public 
to  his  own  use ;  and  had  been  tried  for  certain  actions,  which, 
though  not  declared  to  be  highly  blamable,  or  injurious  to  the 
state,  were,  nevertheless,  of  a  very  suspicious  nature.  Those 
who  have  written  of  the  American  war  have  not  informed  us 
whether  any  attempts  were  made  to  corrupt  his  fidelity,  or 
whether,  by  a  proposal  originating  with  himself,  he  betrayed 
the  cause  of  freedom  and  the  interests  of  his  country.  It  is 
certain,  however,  that  he  had  frequent  interviews  with  Major 
Andre  on  board  the  Vulture,  in  North  River ;  and,  when  that 
officer  was  taken  in  the  disguise  of  a  peasant,  several  docu- 
ments of  a  public  nature,  in  the  handwriting  of  Arnold, 
as  well  as  a  plan  of  the  fortifications  at  West  Point,  where 
the  traitor  commanded,  were  found  in  his  possession.  From 
the  documents   alluded   to,   it  is  probable   that  the   designs 

2R 


494 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


MAJOR    ANDRE. 


of  the  American  general  were  of  an  extensive  nature,  and  that 
he  meditated  the  scheme  of  reannexing  the  colonies  to  the  Bri- 
tish empire.  But,  whether  his  designs  were  limited  or  exten- 
sive, they  were  all  frustrated  by  the  apprehension  of  Major 
Andre.  This  unfortunate  gentleman,  equally  remarkable  for 
the  amiableness  of  his  disposition  and  his  attainments  in  clas- 
sical learning,  was  accidentally  prevented  from  reaching  the 
king's  troops  by  means  of  the  vessel  which  had  conveyed  him 
to  the  shore,  and  was  discovered  and  seized  on  his  way  to  New 
York.  His  case  was  referred  by  the  commander-in-chief  to  a 
board  of  officers,  consisting  of  General  Greene,  Lord  Stirling, 
the  marquis  de  la  Fayette,  Baron  Steuben,  two  major-generals, 
and  eight  brigadiers.  Before  these  distinguished  persons,  it 
was  ascertained  that  he  had  often  come  on  shore  during  the 
night,  and  conversed  in  a  secret  manner  with  General  Arnold  ; 
that  he  changed  his  dress  within  the  American  lines,  and,  under 
a  fictitious  name  and  a  disguised  habit,  had  passed  the  Ameri- 
can works  at  Stony  and  Verplank's  Points ;  that  he  was  taken 
on  the  23d  of  September  by  three  American  soldiers,  Paulding, 
Vanvert,  and  Williams,  when  hastening  to  join  the  British  ; 
and  that  certain  papers,  containing  intelligence  for  the  enemy, 


CAMPAIGNS   OF   1780  AND  1781. 


495 


CAPTURE    OF    MAJOR    AX  DUE. 


■were  found  in  his  boots.  It  was  therefore  determined  by  the 
court  that  he  should  be  considered  as  a  spy  from  the  royal 
army,  and  that,  in  conformity  "with  the  law  of  nations  and  the 
practice  of  European  countries,  he  ought  to  suffer  death.  In 
vain  did  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  and  Arnold  himself,  write  to  Gene- 
ral Washington  and  petition  that  his  life  might  be  spared.  The 
provincials,  galled  by  their  late  distresses,  were  inexorable,  and 
Andre  was  hanged,  on  the  2d  of  October,  at  Tappan,  in  the 
division  of  New  York.  He  met  his  fate  with  courage  and 
composure;  but  regretted  that  the  usages  of  war  would  not 
permit  him  to  terminate  his  days  in  a  more  honourable  manner, 
and  to  die,  not  as  a  criminal,  but  as  a  soldier. 

But,  as  his  example  was  imitated  by  few  of  his  countrymen, 
the  defection  of  Arnold  was  of  no  great  and  permanent  ad- 
vantage to  the  royal  cause.  The  affairs  of  the  British  in  the 
southern  provinces  at  length  began  to  decline.  The  king's 
troops  had  made  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  possess  themselves  of 
North  Carolina ;  Tarleton  was  defeated  with  considerable  loss ; 
and  though  Greene,  the  American  general,  at  the  head  of  a 
powerful  division,  was  twice  constrained  to  yield  to  the  abilities 
of  Cornwallis  and  the  valour  of  Rawdon,  the  provincials  quickly 
recovered  their  ground,  repulsed  the  enemy  in  their  turn,  and 
seemed  every  day  to  increase  in  numbers,  and  to  improve  in 


496 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


discipline.  The  royalists  were  often  in  great  distress  from  the 
want  of  provisions,  and,  on  many  occasions,  were  totally  desti- 
tute of  bread.  No  succours  had  arrived  from  Sir  Henry  Clin- 
ton, the  commander-in-chief.  That  general,  opposed  by  Wash- 
ington, and  deceived  by  the  artifices  of  the  American  leader, 
was  in  daily  apprehension  of  an  attack  upon  New  York,  and 
unable  to  afford  the  least  assistance  to  the  army  in  Carolina.  In 
consequence  of  an  action  which  took  place  between  the  French 
and  British  fleets,  the  allies  became  masters  of  the  Chesapeake. 
Washington,  informed  of  the'  condition  to  which  the  English 
were  reduced,  took  every  method  in  his  power  in  order  to  com- 
pel them  to  surrender.  With  this  view,  he  quitted  his  station 
in  the  vicinity  of  New  York,  and,  accompanied  by  the  marquis 
de  Lafayette  and  the  count  de  Rochambeau,  proceeded  to 
Williamsburg,  in  Virginia;  where,  putting  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  French  and  American  troops,  he  advanced  to  Yorktown ; 
and,  after  the  disembarkation  of  the  stores,  laid  siege  to  that 
place.  The  utmost  alacrity  prevailing  among  the  allied  forces, 
and  the  whole  army  exerting  itself  with  unusual  vigour,  the 
lines  were  completed  in  a  short  time.  The  situation  of  Lord 
Cornwallis,  and  the  British  under  his  command,  now  became 
desperate.  The  works  which  they  had  raised  had  fallen  before 
the  artillery  of  Washington ;   their  attempts  to  repel  the  be- 


CAMPAIGNS   OF   1780   AND   1781. 


497 


SURRENDER     OP     CORNWALLI 


siegers,  to  stop  their  progress,  and  even  to  escape  through  the 
American  lines,  had  all  proved  ineffectual ;  every  day  brought 
the  provincials  nearer  to  their  object ;  and  nothing  at  length 
remained,  but  to  capitulate  on  the  most  honourable  terms.  Ac- 
cordingly, on  the  19th  of  October,  1781,  the  English  general 
yielded  to  the  necessity  which  pressed  upon  him,  and  surren- 
dered himself  and  his  whole  army  prisoners  of  war.  The  ar- 
tillery, arms,  and  accoutrements  belonging  to  the  royalists, 
together  with  their  military  chest,  and  stores  of  every  descrip- 
tion, were  given  up  to  the  Americans ;  and  seven  thousand 
men,  the  flower  of  the  British  troops,  remained  under  the  guard 
or  escort  of  the  continental  battalions. 

The  success  of  the  allies  in  the  capture  of  Yorktown  is 
chiefly  to  be  ascribed  to  the  skill  and  prudence  of  Washington. 
No  little  artifice  was  employed  to  impress  Sir  Henry  Clinton 
with  the  belief  that  New  York  was  in  danger,  and  to  keep  that 
general  in  perpetual  alarm ;  while,  in  these  very  circumstances, 
the  American  commander  was  forming  his  plans  and  collecting 
63  2  r  2 


498 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


TORKTOWN  BATTLE  GROUND. 


his  supplies,  in  order  to  march  against  Cornwallis  in  the  south. 
The  artifice  alluded  to  was  maintained  with  such  ability,  that 
Clinton  did  not  once  suspect  the  intentions  of  the  provincial 
leader,  and  was  effectually  prevented  from  supporting  the  falling 
fortunes  of  his  countrymen.  The  British  general  was  not  de- 
ficient in  those  qualities  which  lead  to  bold  and  adventurous 
exertions ;  but  he  was  deceived  by  appearances,  which  induced 
him  to  think  rather  of  defending  the  capital  in  his  possession, 
than  of  diminishing  his  strength  in  order  to  secure  more  distant 
acquisitions.  When  the  design  of  the  Americans,  however,  was 
known,  he  made  an  effort ;  and,  though  it  was  late  and  ineffi- 
cient, it  showed  his  inclination,  at  least,  to  aid  the  operations 
in  the  southern  countries.  To  the  skill  of  the  French  engineers, 
likewise,  the  success  of  the  allies  should,  in  a  great  degree,  be 
imputed :  but,  above  all,  it  ought  to  be  ascribed  to  the  perse- 
vering patriotism  of  the  colonists  themselves,  and  that  invin- 
cible hatred  of  oppression,  which  animated  them  in  every 
struggle,  and  prompted  them,  after  every  defeat,  to  renewed 
endeavours  in  the  cause  of  liberty. 

The  joy  diffused  throughout  the  United  States  by  the  sur- 


CAMPAIGNS   OF   1780   AND   1781.  499 

render  of  the  army  under  Lord  Cornwallis,  was  equal  to  the 
anxiety  which  it  had  occasioned.  The  people  of  America  re- 
garded the  brilliant  achievement  of  their  commander,  which  put 
the  allies  in  possession  of  Yorktown,  as  determining  the  issue 
of  the  contest;  and  from  that  moment  they  looked  forward  to 
the  reward  of  all  their  toils,  and  a  full  compensation  for  all 
their  sufferings.  By  the  congress  the  intelligence  was  received 
with  the  highest  satisfaction.  They  voted  the  thanks  of  the 
United  States  to  Washington,  to  the  count  de  Rochambeau,  and 
to  the  officers  and  men  of  the  southern  army;  they  resolved, 
that  a  marble  column  should  be  erected  at  Yorktown,  in  Vir- 
ginia, with  emblems  commemorative  of  the  alliance  between  tho 
United  States  and  his  most  Christian  majesty ;  they  determined 
to  go  in  full  and  solemn  procession  to  the  Dutch  Lutheran 
church,  and  give  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  the  success  of 
their  general  and  the  forces  under  his  command  ;  and  they  issued 
a  proclamation,  appointing  the  loth  of  December  as  a  day  of 
thanksgiving  and  prayer  on  account  of  the  signal  interposition 
of  Divine  Providence  which  they  had  experienced. 

But  if  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  was  the  occasion  of  joy  to 
the  Americans,  it  was  the  occasion  of  much  and  serious  concern 
to  the  British.  The  war,  into  which  the  English  nation  had  at 
first  entered  with  great  alacrity,  was  now  become  universally 
unpopular.  The  Americans,  having  secured  the  alliance  of  the 
French,  were  more  able  than  ever  to  resist  the  force  of  the 
British  arms ;  and  the  spirit  which  had  given  rise  to  the  defec- 
tion of  the  colonies,  so  far  from  being  subdued,  continued  to 
influence  them  in  all  their  determinations.  It  was  perceived, 
that  the  reduction  of  the  provinces  could  not  be  accomplished 
without  a  great  waste  of  blood  and  treasure ;  and  perhaps  the 
injustice  of  forcing  the  Americans  to  contribute  to  the  support 
of  a  government  which  allowed  them  no  place  in  its  councils 
had  at  length  become  evident  to  the  British  people.  But,  from 
whatever  cause  it  arose,  it  is  certain,  that  a  remarkable  change 
had  taken  place  in  the  sentiments  of  the  English  nation ;  and 
that  a  desire  for  peace  was  everywhere  prevalent.  Accordingly, 
on  the  4th  of  March,  1782,  it  was  resolved  by  the  House  of 
Commons,  notwithstanding  a  violent  opposition  from  the  min- 
istry, "that  the  house  will  consider  as  enemies  to  his  majesty 
and  the  country,  all  those  who  advise  or  attempt  a  further  prose- 


500 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


cution  of  the  offensive  war  on  the  continent  of  North  America." 
A  change  of  administration  then  took  place.  On  the  5th  of 
May,  Sir  Guy  Carleton  arrived  at  New  York,  and  was  joined 
with  Admiral  Digby  in  a  commission  to  treat  of  peace  with  the 
people  of  America  :  on  the  30th  of  November,  the  articles  were 
signed  at  Paris  ;  and  the  colonies  of  New  Hampshire,  Massa- 
chusetts bay,  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  plantations,  Con- 
necticut, New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware, 
Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and 
Georgia,  were  acknowledged  to  be  "  free,  sovereign,  and  inde- 
pendent states."  In  this  acknowledgment  the  French  had 
already  agreed,  and  their  example  was  speedily  followed  by  the 
other  nations  of  Europe. 

Thus  ended  the  war  between  Great  Britian  and  America ;  a 
war  which  began  in  an  injudicious  and  tyrannical  endeavour  to 
procure  a  revenue  from  the  colonies,  and  which  terminated  in 
their  freedom  and  sovereignty  ;  a  war  in  which  much  blood  was 
spilt,  and  many  cruelties  exercised ;  and  the  issue  of  which  will 
remain  as  a  lesson  to  those  who,  unmindful  of  the  rights  of  the 
people,  would  lift  against  them  the  arm  of  power,  and  force 
them  to  a  compliance  with  their  unjust  demands. 


FIRST  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 


501 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  FIRST   FRENCH 
REVOLUTION. 


HE  history  of  the  Revolution 
exhibits  to  us  France,  during  a 
period  of  forty  years,  under  four 
principal  phases,  all  strikingly 
different  the  one  from  the  other. 
In  the  first  of  these,  we  see  the 
struggle  which  the  nation  had  to 
maintain  against  the  court  and 
the  privileged  orders — an  awful 
and  terrible  struggle,  which  ter- 
minated by  the  triumph  of  the 
multitude  and  the  fall  of  the 
throne.  The  second  exhibits  to 
us  the  scourge  of  foreign  war, 
accompanied  by  the  still  more  fearful  one  of  the  rule  of  the 
populace,  and  of  those  violent  and  vicious  men  into  whose  hands 
a  blind  and  uncalculating  resistance  had  thrown  the  reins  of 
power.  This  second  is  that  bloody  period  during  which  France 
was  a  prey,  first  to  the  reign  of  terror,  and  then  to  that  of 
anarchy — the  period  of  the  republic,  up  to  the  18th  Brumaire. 
In  its  third  phase,  the  revolution  shows  the  nation  exhausted 
by  a  long  succession  of  ills,  worn  out  with  its  own  excesses, 
and  seeking,  at  the  feet  of  the  great  captain,  a  refuge  in  mili- 
tary despotism.  During  this  period,  France  seems  transformed 
into  one  vast  camp,  and  signalizes,  during  twelve  years,  by  an 
uninterrupted  succession  of  triumphs,  her  reaction  against  com- 
bined Europe.  This  is  the  period  of  the  consulate  and  the 
empire.  And  finally,  when  the  application  of  a  portion  of 
those  principles  in  the  name  of  which  the  revolution  had  been 


502  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

effected,  has  received,  from  time,  a  sort  of  consecration — when 
men,  long  agitated  by  opposing  views,  have,  at  length,  learned 
to  live  together,  and  in  peace,  beneath  the  iron  hand  of  the 
conqueror,  the  latter  falls,  in  his  turn — the  love  of  freedom 
reawakens  in  the  hearts  of  Frenchmen,  and  the  restoration 
is  accomplished,  under  the  condition  that  France  shall  be  en- 
dowed with  political  liberty,  and  that  the  general  interests  in- 
volved in  the  new  order  of  things  which  has  arisen  shall  be 
respected.  This  period,  during  which  France  learns  to  exercise 
her  political  rights  through  a  struggle  of  sixteen  years  for  their 
defence,  is  the  last  phase  of  the  revolution,  and  terminates  in 
the  great  days  of  July,  1880,  followed  by  the  establishment  of 
a  new  government,  destined  to  commence  with  false  promises, 
and,  after  becoming  despotic  and  corrupt,  to  terminate  in  a  new 
revolution  in  1848. 

If,  at  the  outset  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI.,  the  voices  of 
such  men  as  Turgot  and  Malesherbes — men  alike  distinguished 
for  their  patriotism  and  their  wisdom — had  been  listened  to, 
France  would,  in  all  probability,  have  entered  at  once  upon  the 
enjoyment  of  many  of  those  advantages  which  she  has  since 
purchased  at  such  a  price  of  treasure,  tears,  and  blood.  But  it 
is,  alas  !  with  nations  as  with  individuals  :  their  experience  is 
ever  dearly  bought,  and  they  have  need  of  a  painful  probation 
ere  they  will  consent  to  follow  the  counsels  of  wisdom.  All 
parties  in  France  refused  to  listen  to  any  other  voice  than  that 
of  their  own  selfish  passions,  and  all  perished,  in  succession, 
the  victims  of  their  own  furious  excesses.  During  the  bloody 
period  of  which  we  are  now  about  to  trace  a  rapid  sketch,  the 
French  nation,  by  its  saturnalia  of  crime,  its  marvellous  victo- 
ries, and  its  astonishing  progress  in  population  and  in  wealth, 
after  a  series  of  the  most  dreadful  convulsions  by  which  an 
empire  was  ever  desolated,  was  an  object,  by  turns,  of  horror, 
pity,  admiration,  and  terror  to  the  gazing  universe. 

It  was  on  the  5th  of  May,  1789,  that  the  states-general 
were  to  open,  and  the  royal  sitting,  for  this  purpose,  was  ac- 
cordingly held  in  the  Salle  des  Melius,  at  Versailles.  The 
deputies  were  summoned  thither  and  introduced,  according  to 
the  order  established  in  1614 ;  but  the  time  was  gone  by  when 
the  tiers  etat,  speaking  on  their  knees  and  bareheaded,  acknow- 
ledged their  degrading  inferiority  in  the  presence  of  the  other 


FIRST   FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  503 

orders.  They  lost  no  time  in  showing  that  they  considered 
themselves  as  the  equals  of  the  other  two  estates  ;•  and  when, 
following  the  example  of  the  king,  the  deputies  of  the  two 
higher  orders  covered  their  heads,  those  of  the  commons,  con- 
trary to  the  usage  of  the  ancient  states,  immediately  imitated 
the  clergy  and  the  nobles.  That  simple  action  alone  might 
have  sufficed  to  show  the  court  that  a  revolution  had  been 
effected  in  mind  and  manners.  The  deputies  of  the  commons, 
however,  would  have  gained  but  little  by  proclaiming  them- 
selves the  equals  of  the  other  orders,  had  they  been  unable  to 
compel  the  recognition  of  that  equality  by  basing  it  on  facts. 
The  first  and  most  important  question  to  be  settled  was,  whether 
the  votes  should  be  taken  individually  or  by  orders.  In  the 
latter  case,  the  deputies  of  the  tiers  6tat  would  lose  the  advan- 
tage which  their  number  (double  that  of  the  deputies  of  each 
of  the  privileged  orders)  gave  them.  The  court  and  the  major- 
ity of  the  nobles  and  clergy  attached  the  utmost  importance 
to  procuring  a  decision  that  the  votes  should  be  taken  by  orders 
on  all  political  questions.  But  the  nobles  included  among  their 
members  many  popular  dissentients.  The  cures,  too,  formed  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  clerical  deputies ;  and  their  opinions 
inclined  towards  those  of  the  deputies  of  the  tiers  etat,  to  whom 
their  unanimity  of  feeling  and  numerical  force  gave  an  immense 
advantage.  These  latter  displayed,  on  the  present  occasion, 
immovable  patience  and  unshaken  firmness.  They  proceeded 
to  the  verification  of  their  powers,  after  having  invited  the  no- 
bles and  clergy  to  be  present ;  and,  subsequently,  by  the  ad- 
vice of  Sieyes,  they  constituted  themselves,  on  the  17th  of  June, 
into  a  national  assembly.  This  important  resolution  was  im- 
mediately followed  up  by  acts  of  supremacy.  The  assembly 
proclaimed  the  indivisibility  of  the  legislative  power,  voted  the 
provisional  levy  of  taxes  so  long  as  they  should  be  sitting, 
and  their  entire  cessation  in  case  they  should  be  dissolved,  con- 
solidated the  public  debt,  and  appointed  a  committee  of  supply. 
Alarmed  at  the  vast  ascendency  which  these  early  acts  of 
theirs  gave  to  the  national  assembly  over  the  public  mind,  the 
dominant  party  at  court,  opposed  to  Necker  and  led  by  the 
comte  d'Artois  and  the  princes  de  Conde'  and  de  Conti,  commu- 
nicated their  alarms  to  Louis  XVI.,  and  prevailed  on  him  to 


504  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

interpose  his  power  by  annulling  the  decrees  of  the  assembly, 
commanding  the  separation  of  the  orders,  and  taking  upon  him- 
self to  prescribe  all  the  reforms  which  should  be  undertaken  by 
the  states-general.  For  this  purpose  a  royal  sitting  was  an- 
nounced, and,  under  pretext  of  the  preparations  requisite  for 
that  occasion,  the  hall  of  the  states  was  in  the  mean  time 
closed.  Bailly,  the  chief  deputy  for  Paris,  presided  at  that 
time  over  the  assembly,  a  man  at  once  esteemed  for  his  literary 
and  scientific  labours,  and  who  had  won  the  respect  of  all  par- 
ties by  his  nobility  and  firmness  of  character.  On  the  20th 
of  June,  he  presented  himself,  with  a  great  number  of  his  col- 
leagues, at  the  door  of  the  hall,  and  found  it  closed.  The  vio- 
lent designs  of  the  court  were  no  longer  doubtful,  and  the 
indignant  deputies  resolved  to  thwart  their  execution.  They 
followed  their  president  to  the  tennis-court,  and  there,  with 
uplifted  hands  and  hearts  filled  with  the  sense  of  what  they 
owed  to  their  country,  swore,  with  the  exception  of  a  single 
one  among  them,  never  to  separate  till  they  had  given  a 
constitution  to  France.  Two  days  afterwards,  the  majority 
of  the  clergy  joined  the  deputies  of  the  commons,  in  the 
church  of  Saint  Louis,  where  the  latter  had  assembled  provi- 
sionally. 

Such  were  the  preludes  to  that  royal  session  which  was  held 
on  the  23d  of  June,  and  at  which  Necker  excused  himself  from 
attending.  The  king  appeared  there  in  all  the  pomp  of  sove- 
reignty, and  was  received  with  chilling  silence.  He  refused  to 
recognise  the  assembly  but  as  that  of  the  order  of  the  tiers 
s'tat,  and  commanded  it  immediately  to  dissolve.  The  members 
of  the  nobility  and  clergy  who  were  present  obeyed  as  soon  as 
the  king  had  departed ;  but  the  commons  retained  their  seats. 
The  grand-master  of  the  ceremonies  entered  to  remind  them  of 
the  monarch's  order.  "  Tell  your  master,"  replied  Mirabeau, 
"  that  we  are  here  by  order  of  the  people,  and  will  be  driven 
hence  only  by  the  bayonet."  Then,  Sieyes,  addressing  his 
colleagues,  coolly  said — «  You  are  to-day  what  you  were  yes- 
terday. Let  us  enter  on  our  deliberations."  The  assembly 
persisted  in  all  its  resolutions,  and,  on  the  motion  of  Mirabeau, 
added  one  asserting  the  inviolability  of  its  members.  From 
that  hour  the  royal  authority  was  lost.     The  majority  of  the 


FIRST   FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 


505 


members  of  the  clergy  sat  again  in  the  assembly  on  its  next 
meeting  ;  and,  a  few  days  afterwards,  forty-seven  members  of 
the  nobility,  among  whom  was  the  duke  of  Orleans,  joined  it. 
Finally,  after  the  27th  of  June,  the  deliberations  became  ge- 
neral, and  the  distinction  established  between  the  orders  ceased 
to  exist. 


64 


2S 


506 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 


CAPTURE    OF    THE    BASTILE. 


CAPTURE  OF  THE  BASTILE. 


LL  moral  authority  having  thus 
passed  from  the  monarch  to  the  as- 
sembly, the  counsellors  of  Louis 
XVI.  rashly  persuaded  him  to  have 
recourse  to  force.  Great  numbers 
of  troops  were  drawn  together  round 
Versailles  ;  Necker  was  banished  ; 
and  the  mare'chal  de  Broglie,  La 
Galissonniere,  the  due  de  la  Vau- 
guyon,  the  baron  de  Breteuil,  and 
the  intendant  Foulon,  all  more  or  less  imbued  with  the  opinions 
of  the  court,  were  named  to  the  ministry.  The  approach  of 
the  troops,  and  the  exile  of  Necker,  provoked  a  fermentation  in 
Paris.  Camille  Desmoulins,  a  young  man  glowing  with  zeal  in 
the  cause  of  freedom,  harangued  the  people  in  the  Palais  Royal, 
and  summoned  them  to  take  up  arms.  The  busts  of  Necker 
and  the  duke  of  Orleans  were  paraded  through  Paris.  This 
sort  of  ovation  was  disturbed  by  the  prince  de  Lambesc,  colonel 
of  the  royal  German  corps,  who  charged  the  mob  ;  but  the 
French  guards  took  part  with  the  people, — the  troops  refused 
to  fire  on  their  companions  in  arms,  and  fell  back.  The  tumult 
and  disorder  increased  throughout  the  capital.      The  barriers 


CAPTURE   OF   THE   BASTILE.  507 

were  set  fire  to,  and  many  houses  were  pillaged  by  ruffians. 
The  populace  was  without  bread,  and  the  greatest  evils  were  to 
be  apprehended.  To  prevent  these,  a  body  of  electors  assem- 
bled at  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  took  the  authority  into  their  own 
hands,  and  rendered  great  service  by  their  conduct,  at  once 
firm,  active,  and  prudent.  The  national  assembly,  after  having 
vainly  attempted  a  reconciliation  with  the  court,  unanimously 
decreed  the  responsibility  of  ministers,  and  of  all  the  coun- 
sellors of  the  king,  of  what  rank  soever  they  might  be.  A 
vote  was  passed,  expressive  of  regret  for  Necker  and  the  dis- 
graced ministers, — the  public  debt  was  committed  to  the  safe 
keeping  of  the  national  honour, — and  the  assembly  declared 
itself  permanent.  The  archbishop  of  Vienna  presided  over  it, 
and  La  Fayette  was  elected  vice-president. 

The  populace  of  Paris,  inflamed  by  the  hostile  attitude  of  the 
court  and  the  energetic  proceedings  of  the  assembly,  determined 
to  pursue  its  advantages,  and  demanded  arms.  The  committee 
of  electors,  sitting  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  organized  the  national 
guard,  which  they  increased  to  forty-eight  thousand  men, 
giving  them  the  tri-coloured  cockade — its  colours  being  those 
of  the  arms  of  the  city  of  Paris.  Each  district  had  its  bat- 
talion. Fifty  thousand  pikes  were  forged, — the  arsenal  of  the 
Invalids  was  pillaged, — and  the  universal  cry  of  the  populace 
was,  <  To  the  Bastile !'  The  memorable  siege  of  that  fortress 
was  undertaken ;  and  the  French  guards  coming  to  the  aid  of 
the  people,  with  cannon,  decided  its  capture,  the  slender  gar- 
rison laying  down  their  arms.  The  governor  Delaunay  and 
several  soldiers,  unable  to  escape  the  fury  of  the  multitude, 
were  put  to  death  ;  and  the  populace  returned  in  triumph  to  the 
Hotel  de  Ville,  bearing  the  bloody  trophies  of  their  victory.  A 
letter  found  on  the  unfortunate  Delaunay  involved  M.  de  Fles- 
selles,  the  mayor  of  Paris,  in  an  accusation  of  treason.  The 
first  impulse  of  the  populace  was  to  massacre  him ;  but  they, 
subsequently,  ordered  that  he  should  be  arraigned  before  them. 
He  was  assassinated,  however,  by  a  pistol  shot.  The  popular 
effervescence  was  at  its  height ;  Paris  prepared  herself  for  bat- 
tle on  the  following  day,  and  the  entire  city  wore  the  aspect 
of  one  vast  camp. 

The  court,  however,  was  still  blind  enough  to  see  in  this 
movement  of  a  whole  metropolis  no  more  than  a  mere  riot.    The 


508  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

king  proposed  to  dissolve  the  assembly,  and  had  delegated  to 
the  commandant  of  the  army,  the  mardchal  de  Broglie,  un- 
limited powers.  Informed,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  by  the 
worthy  La  Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,  of  the  taking  of  the  Bas- 
tile  and  all  the  events  of  the  14th  July, — '  This  is  an  insur- 
rection!' said  the  king.  'No  sire,'  replied  the  great  citizen, 
'it  is  a  revolution.'  The  king's  firmness  gave  way,  before  the 
gravity  of  the  circumstances ;  and,  on  the  day  following,  he 
appeared  in  the  midst  of  the  assembly.  <■  The  silence  of  the 
people  is  a  lesson  for  kings,'  as  Mirabeau  had  said ;  and  the 
deputies  preserved,  at  first,  an  attitude  of  gloomy  attention,  in 
the  presence  of  the  monarch.  But  when  he  had  declared  to 
them  that  he  and  the  nation  were  but  as  one, — that  the  troops 
should  be  sent  away, — and  when  he  added,  with  a  trembling 
voice,  <  Well,  gentlemen,  I  place  myself  in  your  hands,' — the 
assembly  broke  forth  into  acclamations,  and  rising,  conducted 
Louis  XVI.  back  to  his  palace. 

The  king  felt  the  necessity  of  doing  something  to  appease  the 
capital.  He  caused  it  to  be  announced  that  Necker  should  be 
recalled,  and  that  he  would,  himself,  repair  on  the  following 
day  to  Paris,  where  Bailly  had  been  appointed  mayor,  and  La 
Fayette  commandant  of  the  burgher  guard.  The  monarch  was 
received  by  these  two.  '  Sire,'  said  the  former,  in  presenting 
to  him  the  keys  of  the  city, — <  Henry  IV.  conquered  back  his 
people, — but  here  the  people  have  conquered  back  their  king.' 
Louis  entered  the  Hotel  de  Ville  without  guards,  received  the 
tri-coloured  cockade,  amid  the  acclamations  of  the  multitude, 
and  returned  to  Versailles  only  after  having  confirmed  the 
elections  of  the  people,  and  sanctioned  the  new  magistracies. 


THE  FIRST  EMIGRATION. 


509 


THE  FIRST  EMIGRATION. 


i9lWT  was  at  this  period  that 
the  first  emigration  began. 
The  comte  d'Artois,  the 
x»  prince  de  Cond^,  the 
—  prince  de  Conti,  and  the 
Polignac  family,  set  the  example 
of  quitting  France.  Necker's  re- 
turn to  Paris  was  in  the  nature  of 
a  triumph ;  but  with  that  event 
ended  his  career  of  fame.  Believ- 
ing himself  the  master  of  a  party, 
who  no  longer  looked  on  him  as 
more  than  an  instrument,  he  endeavoured  to  save  Be'zenval,  the 
second  in  command  of  the  troops,  and  whom  the  people  had  made 
prisoner.  Already,  the  intendant  Foulon  and  his  nephew  Ber- 
thier  had  perished,  victims  of  the  popular  resentment.  Bezen- 
val  was  more  deeply  compromised  than  either  of  these,  and 
Necker,  by  proposing  an  amnesty,  sacrificed  his  popularity  at 
once.  From  that  hour  he  commenced  a  fruitless  struggle  against 
the  revolution.  The  metropolitan  movement  had  extended  itself 
into  the  provinces  ;  and  the  people  were,  everywhere,  organizing 
themselves  into  municipalities  and  national  guards.  Troops  of 
armed  men  scoured  the  country,  burning  and  pillaging  the  cha- 
teaux and  destroying  their  title-deeds.  To  allay  this  irritation,  it 
became  important  that  its  causes  should  be  in  some  measure 
removed,  by  the  abolition  of  the  more  odious  privileges ;  and  to 
this  reform  the  assembly  proceeded  unshrinkingly,  on  the  famous 
night  of  the  4th  of  August.  The  signal  for  sacrifices  was  given 
by  the  vicomte  de  Noailles,  who  proposed  the  redemption  of 
feudal  rights,  and  the  suppression  of  personal  servitude.  There 
grew  up  among  the  privileged  orders  a  rivalry  in  offerings, 
and  apparently  in  patriotism.     Many  of  these,  however,  contri- 

2s2 


510  INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 

butecl  to  the  destruction  of  all  things  in  the  old  social  system, 
only  in  the  hope  that  the  universal  overthrow  must  lead  to  a 
reaction  as  its  inevitable  consequence.  Abuses  and  privileges 
■were  suppressed ;  and  the  assembly  voted  the  redemption  of 
tithes,  and  their  conversion  into  a  pecuniary  tax, — the  abolition 
of  the  exclusive  right  of  chase  and  of  seignorial  jurisdictions, — 
of  the  sale  of  magisterial  offices, — of  pecuniary  immunities  and 
inequality  of  taxation, — of  the  annates  (first-fruits)  of  the  court 
of  Rome,  and  plurality  of  benefices;  and  the  title  of  '  Restorer 
of  French  liberty'  was  bestowed  upon  Louis  XVI.  That 
memorable  night  led  to  the  regulation  of  the  public  authorities 
and  the  gratuitous  administration  of  justice.  It  gave  to  all 
Frenchmen  equality  of  rights — all  might,  thenceforth,  aspire  to 
office,  aim  at  becoming  proprietors,  and  devote  themselves  to 
whatsoever  branch  of  industry  they  might  choose.  In  a  word, 
all  obstacles  were,  at  once,  cleared  away,  which  still  offered  any 
opposition  to  the  preparation  of  the  new  constitution. 

The  assembly  was  at  this  period  divided  into  three  leading 
parties  : — first,  that  of  the  court  and  privileged  classes,  formed 
of  the  majority  of  the  nobles  and  clergy,  whose  most  remarkable 
orators  were  the  abbe"  Maury  and  Cazales,  a  cavalry  officer ; — 
secondly,  that  which  desired  a  constitution  after  the  model  of  the 
English, — composed  principally  of  the  minority  among  the 
nobles,  and  having  at  its  head  Necker,  Meunier,  and  Lally  Tol- 
lendal,  the  son  of  General  Lally,  and  early  celebrated  for  the 
conspicuous  talent  which  he  had  displayed  in  clearing  the  memo- 
ry of  his  father; — and  thirdly,  the  remaining  portion  of  the 
assembly  formed  the  party  called  national,  and  which  was  hostile 
to  every  kind  of  aristocratic  distinction  between  the  different 
classes  of  the  nation.  The  most  influential  members  of  this 
party  were  Bailly,  Mirabeau,  and  La  Fayette  ;  by  whose  side, 
however,  were,  likewise,  conspicuous  the  members  of  a  cele- 
brated triumvirate,  at  all  times  zealous  supporters  of  the  most 
popular  propositions,  formed  of  the  counsellor  Duport,  the 
originator  of  the  famous  confederation  of  clubs,  colonel  Alex- 
ander Lameth,  and  the  eloquent  Barnave.  There  was  still  a 
fourth  party  in  the  assembly — that  of  the  duke  of  Orleans ;  but 
this  latter  was  vague  and  ill-defined, — and,  if  it  had  a  real  exist- 
ence, was  composed  of  a  small  number  of  members  personally 
attached  to  the  prince,  and  supposed  to  entertain  the  design  of 


THE    FIRST   EMIGRATION. 


511 


transferring  the  crown  to  his  head.  The  principal  leaders  of 
the  assembly  were  two  men  not  belonging  to  the  tiers  etat,  but 
adopted  by  it — the  abbe  Sieyes  and  Mirabeau.  Of  these,  the 
first  swayed  it  by  the  influence  of  a  powerful  reason,  and  a  mind 
at  once  philosophical  and  abounding  in  ideas  both  novel  and  pro- 
found ; — he  ruled  in  the  committees.  The  second  reigned  in  the 
tribune.  Early  delivered  up  to  the  guidance  of  his  own  stormy 
passions,  the  victim  of  his  personal  irregularities,  and  accus- 
tomed to  the  struggle  with  authority,  devoured  by  a  craving 
after  action  and  movement  proportioned  to  his  own  prodigal 
resources,  audacious  as  he  was  eloquent,  revolutions  were  his 
fitting  element.  Repulsed  by  the  nobles  of  Provence,  he  flung 
himself  into  the  arms  of  the  people,  by  whom  he  was  received 
with  transport, — and  exercised  over  the  assembly  the  sovereignty 
of  genius. 


512 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 


THE  ROYAL  FAMILY  BROUGHT  FROM  VER- 
SAILLES TO  PARIS. 

HE  royal  power,  de facto  suspended, 
was  now  replaced  by  that  of  the 
national  assembly  ;  which  imme- 
diately proceeded  to  appoint 
committees  charged  with  pro- 
viding   for    every    different 
branch  of  the  public  service. 
On  the  proposition  of  La  Fay- 
ette,  it  then  adopted   a  de- 
claration of  rights,  framed  in 
the  spirit  of  the  celebrated 
declaration  of  the  American 
congress,   and   which   served 
as  the  basis  of  their  constitu- 
tion.    This  declaration  Louis  XVI.  hesitated  to  accept,  and  gave 
his  adhesion  at  length  with  great  reluctance.     The  assembly  next 
decreed  the  permanence  of  the  legislative  body  ;  and  after  a  very 
animated  discussion,  in  which  Necker,  Mounier,  and  Lally-Tollen- 
dal  argued  for  the  division  of  that  body  into  a  senate  and  chamber 
of  representatives,  it  was  decided  that  it  should  continue  indivi- 
sible, and  be  composed  of  a  single  chamber.     The  next  step  was 
to  determine  the  action  of  the  monarch  in  the  constitution  of  the 
laws  ;  and,  here,  while  some  contended  that  the  king  should  have 
the  power  of  absolute  opposition  to  the  decrees  of  the  assembly, 
it  was  insisted  by  others  that  his  veto  should  be  merely  suspensive. 
This  question  excited  the  most  violent  debates.     Paris  was  still 
in  a  state  of  great  agitation, — the  natural  result  of  the  popular 
victory  of  the  14th  of  July.     The  assembly  of  electors,  who  had 
assumed  the  functions  of  a  provisional  municipality,  had  been 
recently  replaced.     One  hundred  and  eighty  members,  named 
by  the  different  districts,  had  constituted  themselves  legislators 


THE   ROYAL   FAMILY.  513 

and  representatives  of  the  whole  body  of  citizens ;  while  the 
committees  of  the  sixty  districts  of  Paris  assumed  to  themselves, 
likewise,  a  legislative  power  superior  to  that  of  their  constituents. 
The  rage  for  public  discussion  had  become  general ;  and  assem- 
blies of  every  description  were  formed  throughout  the  city.  The 
soldiery,  the  journeymen  tailors,  the  hair-dressers,  the  body  of 
domestic  servants,  had  each  their  special  place  of  meeting. 
The  most  animated  debates  were  carried  on  in  the  Palais  Royal, 
whence  the  people  controlled  those  of  the  national  assembly. 
There  it  was  that  the  discussion  on  the  royal  veto  excited  the 
most  violent  irritation.  The  middling  class,  of  which  the 
national  guard  was  composed,  had  not  yet,  at  Paris,  got  all 
power  into  its  own  hands ;  and  the  ministry,  alarmed  at  the 
threatening  demonstrations  of  the  multitude,  induced  the  king 
to  abandon  the  unlimited  veto,  and  confine  himself  to  the  sus- 
pensive one.  The  assembly  then  decreed  that  the  refusal  of 
the  royal  sanction  should  not  be  prolonged  beyond  two  legisla- 
tures. It  was  not,  however,  without  great  difficulty  that  the 
court  was  prevailed  on  to  give  way;  and  projects  of  a  far  differ- 
ent character  were  still  nourished  there.  The  courtiers  aimed 
at  exhibiting  Louis  in  the  character  of  an  oppressed  monarch ; 
and,  having  no  hope  but  in  a  civil  war,  were  desirous  that  he 
should  take  refuge  in  the  midst  of  his  army.  Louis  XVI. 
really  loved  his  people,  and  withstood  these  violent  suggestions. 
Troops  were,  however,  collected  round  Versailles.  Some  dra- 
goons and  the  regiment  of  Flanders  were  summoned  thither, 
and  the  enemies  of  the  revolution  resumed  courage.  A  feast 
was  given  to  the  officers  of  the  newly-arrived  regiments,  by 
their  comrades,  in  the  salle  de  spectacle  (theatre)  of  the  chateau, 
which  was  usually  reserved  for  great  solemnities  ;  and  in  the 
midst  of  this  noisy  assemblage  suddenly  appeared  the  king  and 
queen,  the  latter  carrying  the  dauphin  in  her  arms.  Their  en- 
trance was  greeted  with  shouts  of  enthusiasm ;  white  cockades 
were  distributed,  and  the  tri-coloured  emblems  trodden  under 
foot.  Such  was  the  celebrated  banquet  of  the  1st  of  October, 
Avhose  results  were  destined  to  be  so  fatal  to  the  royal  family  of 
France.  The  news  of  this  scene  soon  spread  throughout  Paris, 
and  produced  the  most  violent  fermentation.  The  arrival  of  the 
regiments,  their  hostile  demonstrations,  the  apprehension  of 
plots  against  the  people,  and,  more  than  all,  the  existing 
65 


514  INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

scarcity  of  provisions,  combined  to  occasion  a  fearful  outbreak 
of  the  popular  passions.  The  signal  was  given,  on  the  5th  of 
October,  by  a  young  girl,  who  traversed  the  streets,  with  a  drum 
beating,  and  shouting,  'Bread — bread!'  A  crowd  of  women 
gathered  round  her,  and  the  general  cry  was — 'To  Versailles!' 
Maillard,  one  of  the  volunteers  of  the  Bastile,  placed  himself 
at  the  head  of  this  motley  assemblage,  continually  swelled  by 
the  coming  in  of  a  furious  multitude,  and  offered  to  lead  them 
thither.  Kept  in  check  for  seven  hours  by  La  Fayette,  they, 
however,  at  length  set  out,  and  reached  Versailles,  where  their 
approach  had  already  spread  consternation.  A  first  engage- 
ment had  taken  place  between  the  populace  and  the  gardes  du 
corps  ere  La  Fayette  arrived,  at  the  head  of  the  national  guard 
of  Paris,  to  restrain  the  lawless  rabble.  His  presence  restored 
security,  and  tranquillity  was  re-established.  In  the  dead  of  the 
night,  however,  some  stragglers  of  the  mob  found  one  of  the 
gratings  of  the  chateau  open,  and,  arousing  their  companions, 
entered  the  royal  abode.  The  alarm  was  speedily  given,  and  a 
struggle  took  place  between  the  populace  and  the  guards  on 
duty, — many  of  whom  fell  heroically  at  their  posts,  exclaiming 
— '  Save  the  queen  !'  Marie  Antoinette,  apprized  of  her  danger, 
fled,  half-dressed,  into  the  apartment  of  the  king.  La  Fayette 
flew  to  the  scene  of  action,  and  found  that  the  Paris  guard  had 
already  taken  part  with  the  gardes  du  corps.  He  succeeded  in 
clearing  the  castle  of  the  mob,  exposing  his  own  life  to  drive 
back  the  rioters  from  the  royal  apartments.  The  multitude  de- 
manded, with  loud  cries,  that  the  king  should  make  his  ap- 
pearance, and  that  he  should  repair  with  his  family  to  Paris. 
Louis  XVI.  showed  himself  to  the  shouting  crowd,  and  promised 
to  do  as  they  required.  But  the  queen  it  was  who  was  the 
special  object  of  the  people's  hatred,  and  La  Fayette  led  her 
out  on  to  the  balcony,  and  kissed  her  hand,  before  them,  with 
deep  respect.  Shouts  of  applause  arose  from  the  crowd,  in  an- 
swer. The  departure  for  Paris  was  determined  on ;  and  the 
royal  family  repaired  thither  that  same  day,  escorted  by  the 
guards,  and  accompanied  by  a  hideous  and  bloody  procession. 


DEATH   OF   MIRABEAU. 


515 


DEATH  OF  MIRABEAU— FLIGHT  OF  THE 
KING— DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  NATIONAL 
ASSEMBLY. 


^  MEANTIME,  the  emigration  went  on. 
l<  The  aunts  of  the  king  had  quitted 
j  France  ;  and  Louis  XVI.,  suspected 
of  an  intention  to  follow  them,  was 
arrested  by  the  populace,  and,  with  his  family, 
detained  in  Paris,  at  the  moment  when  he  was 
preparing  to  leave  the  capital  for  Saint  Cloud. 
The  assembly,  while  proclaiming  the  inviola- 
bility of  the  monarch,  declared  that  his  flight  from  the  king- 
dom should  be  construed  into  a  forfeiture  of  the  crown.  The 
deputies,  however,  after  having  got  rid  of  all  abuses  and  privi- 
leges, and  having  completed  the  constitution,  began  to  mani- 
fest in  their  proceedings  a  more  monarchical  tendency.  This 
reaction  was,  in  a  great  measure,  attributable  to  Mirabeau, 
whose  services  had  been  bought  by  the  court,  and  who  was  de- 
sirous at  once  to  consolidate  the  throne  and  maintain  all  the 
useful  results  of  the  revolution.  He  procured  to  be  rejected, 
as  striking  at  individual  liberty,  a  violent  decree  which  had 
been  proposed  against  the  emigrants  ;  but  this  was  his  latest 
triumph.  He  died  a  few  days  afterwards,  (1791,)  exhausted  by 
excesses  of  all  kinds,  and  his  remains  were  borne  to  the  Pan- 
theon. Perhaps  he  alone  could  have  directed  and  restrained 
the  revolutionary  torrent.  His  death  was  a  public  calamity, 
and  the  nation  wore  mourning  for  him. 

The  storm  was  already  muttering  on  the  frontiers,  and  the 
emigrants  were  soliciting  all  Europe  against  France.  They 
formed  two  bodies — the  one  organized  under  Conde,  at  Worms, 
the  other  under  the  comte  d'Artois,  at  Coblentz.  This  latter 
prince  repaired,  accompanied  by  his  minister,  Calonne,  and  Al- 


516  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

phonse  cle  Durfort,  to  the  emperor  Leopold ;  and  the  secret  decla- 
ration of  Mantua,  signed  on  the  20th  of  May,  1791,  was  the 
result  of  their  conference.  That  declaration  promised  to  Louis 
XYI.  the  aid  of  a  coalition,  which  was  to  include  Austria,  the 
Germanic  Circles,  Switzerland,  and  the  kings  of  Sardinia, 
Spain,  and  Prussia.  But  it  was  the  wish  of  Louis  to  make  one 
previous  effort  to  restore  the  monarchy  without  foreign  aid  ; 
and  he  accordingly  attempted  to  repair  to  Montmedy  to  join 
the  army  commanded  by  Bouille.  His  plan  of  escape  was  con- 
certed with  that  general,  who  placed  detachments  at  certain 
distances  along  the  road  which  the  king  was  to  travel.  In  the 
night  of  the  20th  of  June,  the  royal  family  set  out,  in  disguise, 
from  the  chateau  of  the  Tuileries,  eluded  the  vigilance  of  the 
guards,  passed  the  barriers  of  Paris  without  obstacle,  and  took 
the  road  to  Chalons  and  Montme'dy.  At  the  news  of  this 
flight,  Paris  and  the  assembly  at  first  seemed  stupified.  The 
latter,  however,  immediately  took  possession  of  the  executive 
authority,  announced  its  pacific  intentions  to  the  different  pow- 
ers, sent  commissioners  to  the  troops  to  receive  their  oath  of 
allegiance  in  its  own  name,  and  prepared  to  make  it  apparent 
to  Paris  and  to  France  that  a  monarch  was  by  no  means  indis- 
pensable to  the  government  of  the  state.  In  the  mean  time, 
however,  tidings  of  the  king's  arrest  were  spread  abroad.  The 
unfortunate  Louis  had  been  recognised  and  stopped  at  Varen- 
nes,  and  all  the  national  guards  of  the  environs  were  instantly 
in  arms  and  afoot.  The  detachments  of  troops  posted  along 
the  road  were  either  repulsed  or  fearful  of  acting.  Bouille' 
himself  hastened  up  at  the  head  of  a  regiment ;  but  he  came 
too  late — the  king  had  been,  for  several  hours,  on  the  road  back 
to  Paris.  The  assembly  had  sent  three  of  its  members  to  meet 
him  and  insure  his  return.  These  were  the  count  de  Latour- 
Maubourg,  Petion,  and  the  young  Barnave ;  and  the  last  of 
these,  touched  by  the  affability  and  sad  destiny  of  the  royal 
family,  resolved,  from  that  moment,  to  give  them  his  counsel 
and  support.  The  king  was  greeted  in  Paris  by  a  silence  of 
most  sinister  augury.  The  assembly  suspended  him  provision- 
ally from  the  exercise  of  his  functions,  and  appointed  commis- 
sioners to  interrogate  him.  The  discussions  on  this  subject 
were  stormy — some  of  the  disputants  wishing  to  maintain  the 
king  on  the  throne,  and  others  arguing  for  his  deposition.    La- 


FLIGHT   OF   THE   KING.  517 

meth  and  Barnave  joined  the  moderate  party,  with  the  view  of 
defending  the  monarch,  and  created  the  club  of  the  Feuillants 
for  the  purpose  of  opposing  that  of  the  Jacobins,  the  direction 
of  which  had  been  assumed  by  Petion  and  Robespierre,  the 
leaders  of  the  republican  party.  The  assembly,  by  the  advice 
of  Barnave,  declared  that  there  was  no  pretence  for  bringing 
Louis  XIV.  to  trial,  or  pronouncing  a  forfeiture  against  him ; 
but  at  the  same  time,  in  order  to  calm  the  popular  effervescence, 
it  decreed  that  the  kino;  should  be  considered  as  having  abdi- 
cated  de  facto  and  forfeited  his  inviolability,  if  he  should  make 
war  upon  the  nation,  or  suffer  it  to  be  made  in  his  name.  This 
decision  of  the  assembly,  however,  irritated  the  multitude.  The 
agitators  drew  up  a  petition,  in  which  they  appealed  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people,  and  treated  Louis  XVI.  as  having 
abandoned  the  crown  by  his  flight.  This  petition  was  pre- 
pared by  Brissot,  and  carried,  on  the  17th  of  July,  to  the 
Champ  de  Mars,  where,  being  laid  upon  the  national  altar, 
Danton  and  Camille  Desmoulins  harangued  an  immense  multi- 
tude, whom  they  incited  to  insurrection.  The  danger  became 
imminent,  and  the  assembly  enjoined  the  municipality  to  take 
charge  of  the  public  safety.  La  Fayette  and  Bailly  marched 
to  the  Champ  de  Mars  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  body  of  the 
national  guards.  Bailly  read  the  summonses  prescribed  by  the 
law,  and  ordered  the  red  flag  to  be  displayed.  The  multitude 
replied  to  this  signal  by  a  shower  of  stones,  and  all  hope  of 
conciliation  being  now  at  an  end,  it  became  necessary  to  have 
recourse  to  force.  La  Fayette  commanded  the  guard  to  fire. 
The  second  discharge,  was  murderous,  and  dispersed  the  mob. 
They  took  to  flight;  but  never  forgave  either  La  Fayette  or 
Bailly  for  having  done  their  duty  on  this  fatal  day.  These  de- 
plorable dissensions  restored  confidence  to  the  foes  of  the  revo- 
lution, and  the  emigrants  devoted  all  their  energies  to  promot- 
ing a  general  European  confederation  for  its  suppression. 
3Tonsieur  assumed  the  title  of  regent  at  Brussels,  Bouille  wrote 
a  fierce  and  menacing  letter  to  the  assembly,  and  the  emperor, 
the  king  of  Prussia,  and  the  comte  d'Artois  met  at  Pilnitz, 
where,  at  the  risk  of  compromising  the  monarch  whom  they 
sought  to  defend,  they  signed  the  treaty  of  the  27th  of  July. 
In  this  declaration  they  assumed  the  cause  of  Louis  XVI.  for 
their  own,  and  demanded  that  he  should  be  restored  to  the 

2T 


518 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   IIISTORY. 


throne  and  the  assembly  dissolved  ;  denouncing  the  most  fright- 
ful calamities  against  France  in  case  of  refusal.  The  indignant 
assembly  replied  to  these  menaces  by  the  levy  of  a  hundred 
thousand  national  guards  and  the  arming  of  the  "frontiers.  The 
operations  of  that  body  were,  however,  approaching  to  their 
close,  the  convocation  of  the  electoral  colleges  being  fixed  for 
the  5th  of  August.  By  a  fatal  decree,  issued  previous  to  the 
king's  flight  to  Varennes,  the  members  of  the  existing  assembly 
had  formally  excluded  themselves  from  eligibility  into  the  ranks 
of  its  successor.  In  vain  did  Duport  exclaim,  «  How  comes  it 
that  they  who  cram  us  now-a-days  with  principles  have  failed 
to  recognise  stability  as  a  necessary  principle  of  good  govern- 
ment ?"  The  decree  was  promulgated,  and  the  mania  of  disin- 
terestedness becoming  contagious,  Bailly  surrendered  the  may- 
oralty, and  La  Fayette  the  command  of  the  national  guards ; 
and  thus  the  conduct  of  the  revolution  was  surrendered  into  the 
hands  of  a  new  set  of  men,  who  began  a  fresh  revolutionary 
system  of  their  own,  in  the  sole  design  of  building  up  a  name 
and  fortune  to  themselves. 


•HE   LEGISLATIVE   ASSEMBLY— THE   GIRONDISTS. 


519 


LAYFAYETTE. 


THE   LEGISLATIVE  ASSEMBLY— THE 
GIRONDISTS. 

HE  court,  the  nobles,  and  the  clergy  had 
exercised  no  influence  over  the  new 
elections,  which  were  of  a  character 
entirely  popular;  and  the  assembly 
opened  its  session  on  the  ls.t  of  Octo- 
ber, 1791.  It  proceeded  at  once  to  de- 
clare itself  the  national  legislative  as- 
sembly; and,  amid  the  acclamations  of 
the  people  who  thronged  the  galleries, 
took,  upon  the  constitutional  act,  the 
oath,  to  live  freemen,  or  to  die.  The 
minority  of  the  former  assembly  had 
become  the  majority  of  this,  and  the  parties  of  which  it  was 
composed  speedily  declared  themselves.  The  right,  consisting 
of  members  formerly  attached  to  the  constitution,  formed  the 
party  of  the  Feuillants,  and  was  supported  by  the  club  of  that 
name,  the  national  guard,  and  the  army.     But  it  was  no  longer 


520  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

paramount  in  the  assembly,  and  was  compelled  to  cede  the  im- 
portant post  of  the  municipality  to  its  opponents  of  the  left, 
who  composed  the  Girondin  party,  headed  by  Yergniaud,  Gua- 
det,  and  Gensonnd,  the  celebrated  orators  of  the  Gironde,  from 
whence  it  took  its  name ;  and,  in  conjunction  with  them,  by 
Brissot,  Condorcet,  and  the  violent  Isnard.  This  latter  party 
was  disposed  to  call  in,  to  the  aid  of  the  revolution,  the  passions 
of  the  multitude  and  the  weapons  of  violence, — differing,  in 
that  respect,  from  the  constitutionalists,  who  rejected  all  other 
support  than  that  of  the  law.  The  centre  of  the  legislative  as- 
sembly was  attached  to  the  new  order  of  things  ;  but  the  public 
danger  swayed  its  resolutions,  and  carried  it  over  to  the  party 
of  the  left.  Out  of  doors,  the  Girondins  were  supported  by  the 
democratic  party,  who  influenced  the  populace  and  the  clubs, 
Robespierre  swayed  that  of  the  Jacobins  ;  Danton,  Camille  Des- 
moulins,  and  Fabre  d'Eglantine  governed  the  still  more  violent 
one  of  the  Cordeliers,  and  Santerre  ruled  in  the  faubourgs. 
Such  were  the  principal  chiefs  of  the  popular  party,  and  their 
power  was  rapidly  increased  by  the  audacious  enterprises  of  the 
leaders  of  the  revolution. 

The  number  of  emigrants  continued  daily  to  increase.  The 
king's  two  brothers  and  the  princes  had  protested  against  the 
acceptance,  by  Louis  XVI.,  of  the  constitutional  act ;  and,  at 
their  appeal,  the  nobles  quitted  their  chateaux,  and  the  officers 
their  regiments.  Hostile  assemblages  were  formed  in  the  Aus- 
trian Netherlands  and  the  neighbouring  electorates  ;  and  a 
counter-revolution  was  in  preparation  at  Brussels,  at  Worms,  and 
at  Coblentz,  under  the  protection  of  foreign  courts.  While  the 
emigrant  nobles  were  arranging  all  things  abroad  for  war,  the 
refractory  priests  omitted  no  means  of  arousing  the  people  in  the 
same  cause,  by  exciting  their  fanaticism.  The  bishops  forbade 
the  receiving  of  the  sacraments  from  the  priests  whom  they 
designated  as  intrus,  (interlopers) ;  menacing  circulars  against 
all  who  participated  therein,  were  distributed  throughout  the 
country ;  and  dangerous  disturbances  broke  out  in  Calvados, 
Gdvaudan,  and  La  Vendue.  The  enraged  assembly,  on  the 
30th  of  October,  adopted  a  decree,  which  declared  Louis-Stan- 
islaus-Xavier,  the  king's  brother,  to  have  forfeited  his  title  to 
the  regency,  unless  he  should  re-enter  France  within  two  months  : 
and   afterwards   declared   that   all   Frenchmen   assembled  be- 


TIIE   LEGISLATIVE   ASSEMBLY— THE   GIRONDISTS.  521 

yond  the  frontiers  were  suspected  of  conspiring  against  their 
country  ;  and  that,  if,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1792,  they  should 
still  be  in  a  state  of  hostile  assemblage,  they  should  be  treated 
as  such  conspirators,  and  punishable  with  death :  and,  finally, 
it  decreed  that  the  refractory  ecclesiastics  should  be  required  to 
take  the  civic  oath,  under  pain  of  being  deprived  of  their  pen- 
sions, and  should  be  liable  to  arrest  in  the  event  of  religious  dis- 
turbances occurring  within  their  parishes.  The  king  sanctioned 
the  first  of  these  decrees,  but  opposed  his  veto  to  the  two  others. 
At  the  same  time,  he  declared  vehemently  against  the  emigra- 
tion ;  but  his  court  relied  on  the  co-operation  of  Europe,  and 
was  the  focus  of  most  of  the  intrigues  carried  on  against  the 
assembly.  Blinded  by  its  hatred  towards  the  constitution  and 
its  authors,  it  committed  the  great  and  fatal  error  of  withholding 
its  confidence  from  the  constitutionalists,  when  they  alone  were 
devoted  to  its  defence.  In  this  manner,  it  lifted  the  Girondin 
Petion  to  the  mayoralty,  in  preference  to  La  Fayette,  and 
opened  up  the  municipality  of  Paris  to  the  creatures  of  the  mob. 
The  national  indignation  was,  at  this  period,  especially  ex- 
cited by  the  conduct  of  the  frontier  princes,  who  warmly  re- 
ceived the  emigrants,  and  encouraged  military  congregations. 
The  assembly  sought  to  obtain,  from  Louis  XVI. ,  a  solemn 
declaration  against  these  princes,  and  Isnard  concluded  a  dis- 
course, delivered  with  this  object,  from  the  tribune,  in  these 
passionate  words  : — '  Let  us  say  to  Europe,  that  if  her  cabinets 
engage  their  kings  in  a  war  against  the  people,  we  will  engage 
the  people  in  a  war  unto  the  death  against  kings.  Let  us  say 
to  her,  that  the  battles  which  the  people  fight  against  each 
other,  by  order  of  their  despots,  are  like  the  blows  that  two 
friends,  misled  by  a  treacherous  instigator,  aim  at  each  other  in 
the  dark.  When  the  light  of  day  appears,  they  fling  away  their 
arms,  embrace,  and  unite  in  chastising  him  who  deceived  them 
both.  And  thus,  at  the  moment  when  the  hostile  armies  shall 
struggle  against  ours,  should  the  dawn  of  philosophy  strike 
their  eyes,  the  nations  shall  embrace  each  other,  in  view  of 
tyrants  dethroned,  the  earth  comforted,  and  heaven  approving.' 
The  proposed  measure  was  carried  unanimously  and  triumphantly, 
and  received  the  sanction  of  the  monarch.  '  If,'  said  he,  '  my 
representations  shall  be  disregarded,  it  will  then  but  remain 
fur  me  to  propose  war.'  The  assembly  voted  twenty  millions 
66  2  t  2 


522  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

for  this  object ;  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  were  raised, 
and  three  armies  were  formed,  on  the  northern  and  eastern 
frontiers,  under  the  respective  commands  of  Rochambeau,  Luck- 
ner,  and  La  Fayette.  The  arraignment  of  the  emigrant  princes 
was,  at  the  same  time,  determined  on,  and  Monsieur  was  de- 
clared to  have  forfeited  his  title  to  the  regency.  To  these  de- 
crees of  the  assembly,  Austria,  at  that  time  governed  by  the 
prince  of  Kaunitz,  as  its  prime  minister,  replied  by  an  order  to 
the  mare'chal  de  Bender  to  support  the  elector  of  Treves,  in  case 
he  should  be  attacked ;  and  by  demanding  the  restoration  of 
the  Germanic  princes  who  had  formerly  held  territorial  sway  in 
Alsace, — insisting  upon  the  re-establishment  of  feudalism  in  that 
province,  or  war  as  the  alternative. 

The  legislative  assembly  accused  the  ministry  of  weakness  and 
insincerity ;  and  the  minister  of  war,  Narbonne,  who  was  sin- 
cerely attached  to  the  constitution,  having  been  sacrificed,  by 
means  of  a  court  intrigue,  to  Bertrand  deMolleville,  the  minister 
of  marine,  who  was  justly  an  object  of  suspicion,  a  total  break- 
ing up  of  the  council  was  the  consequence,  followed  by  the  com- 
mittal of  Delessart,  the  minister  for  foreign  affairs,  for  trial 
before  the  high  court  of  Orleans.  Constrained  by  circumstances, 
the  king,  then,  formed  a  Girondin  ministry,  whose  most  re- 
markable members  were  General  Dumouriez  and  Roland.  The 
first  of  these,  accustomed  to  intrigue  from  his  youth  upwards, 
and  seeking  to  push  his  fortune  at  any  price,  was  bold,  fickle, 
and  unshackled  by  political  convictions  of  any  kind,  but  gifted 
with  an  acute  perception,  and  a  genius  fertile  in  resources.  The 
second  was  a  passionate  lover  of  liberty — worthy,  by  the  sim- 
plicity of  his  manners  and  the  austerity  of  his  morals,  to  be  the 
son  of  a  republic  ;  but  his  talents  were  slender,  and  he  was 
chiefly  remarkable  by  means  of  his  wife,  distinguished  by  quali- 
ties at  once  noble  and  winning,  and  herself  the  soul  and  coun- 
sellor of  the  Gironde. 

The  first  measure  of  the  new  ministry  had  relation  to  the 
war.  Leopold  was  dead,  and  was  about  to  be  succeeded  in  the 
empire  by  Francis  II.,  king  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary, — whose 
accession,  however,  made  no  change  in  the  Austrian  policy 
towards  France.  The  prince  of  Kaunitz,  in  his  name,  de- 
manded the  restoration  to  the  clergy  of  the  property  of  the 
church,  of  the  territories  of  Alsace  to  the  German  princes,  and 


THE   LEGISLATIVE   ASSEMBLY— THE    GIRONDISTS. 


52:5 


ROCHAMBEAU. 


of  the  Venaissin  to  the  pope.  To  this  ultimatum  of  Austria, 
Louis  XVI.  replied  by  a  proposition  of  war,  and  the  assembly 
decided  on  its  adoption.  The  invasion  of  Belgium,  occupied  by 
the  Prussians,  was  resolved  upon,  and  Rochambeau  was  ordered 
to  undertake  it.  But  the  first  two  of  the  invading  columns 
were  seized  with  a  panic  at  sight  of  the  Prussian  army,  and 
fled.  Rochambeau  shortly  afterwards  resigned  his  command ; 
and  thenceforth  the  war  assumed  a  defensive  character.  The 
army  of  La  Fayette  extended  itself  from  the  sea  to  Longwy,  and 
that  of  Luckner  from  the  Moselle  to  the  Jura. 

This  first  reverse  of  the  republican  arms  excited  great  un- 
easiness and  kindled  violent 'discontent.  The  court  was  ac- 
cused of  an  understanding  with  the  enemy.  The  existence 
within  it  of  an  Austrian  committee  was  denounced  without  any 
proof,  and  the  assembly  declared  itself  permanent.  It  issued 
orders  for  the  disbanding  of  the  king's  constitutional  guard, 
which  he  had  increased  from  eighteen  hundred  to  six  thousand 


524  INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 

men ;  and  published  two  decrees,  in  opposition  to  the  royal 
will, — by  one  of  which  the  refractory  priests  were  exiled,  and 
by  the  other  a  camp  of  twenty  thousand  men  was  established 
under  the  walls  of  Paris.  The  ministers  implored  the  king  to 
deprive  the  opposition  clergy  of  all  hope,  by  admitting  the 
priests  who  had  taken  the  oaths  about  his  person ;  but  their 
efforts  were  unavailing,  and  a  schism  broke  out,  on  this  subject, 
in  the  ministry.  Roland  wrote  a  severe  letter  to  Louis  XVI. 
on  his  constitutional  duties,  conjuring  him  to  make  himself 
frankly  and  in  good  faith  the  king  of  the  revolution.  This  let- 
ter gave  offence  to  the  monarch,  and  decided  the  dissolution  of 
the  cabinet.  The  Girondin  ministers  were  dismissed,  and,  a  few 
days  afterwards,  the  two  decrees  were  rejected  by  the  king. 
The  assembly  immediately  proceeded  to  a  declaration  that  three 
of  the  members  of  the  late  ministry,  Roland,  Servan,  and  Cla- 
viere,  carried  with  them  the  regrets  of  the  nation. 

The  new  ministry  was  chosen  from  the  party  of  the  Feuillants, 
whose  ranks  were  composed  of  men,  the  moderation  of  whose 
opinions  deprived  them  of  the  support  of  the  multitude,  while 
their  attachment  to  the  constitution  rendered  them  odious  to  the 
court.  They  were,  in  consequence,  powerless ;  and  the  king, 
himself,  perceiving  their  feebleness,  had  no  longer  any  hope 
save  in  the  intervention  of  Europe,  and  charged  Mallet-Dupan 
with  a  secret  mission  to  the  combined  princes.  The  monarchists, 
at  the  head  of  whom  were  Lally  and  Malouet,  made  a  last  effort 
to  retard  the  forward  march  of  the  revolution.  Duport,  Lameth, 
Barnave,  and  La  Fayette,  attempted  to  suppress  the  clubs,  and 
to  restore  the  royal  authority.  La  Fayette  wrote  to  the  as- 
sembly, denouncing  the  Jacobins  as  the  fomenters  of  all  disturb- 
ances, and  imploring  it  to  take  none  but  legal  measures  for  the 
public  weal  and  safety.  This  letter,  however,  had  no  other 
effect  than  that  of  shaking  the  credit  of  the  young  general. 
Parties  grew  more  and  more  divided,  and  all  hope  of  conciliation 
gradually  vanished.  All  parties  alike  sought  their  triumphs  by 
culpable  means.  The  court  reckoned  on  the  co-operation  of 
Europe  to  enable  it  to  recover  its  power,  and  the  Gironde  relied 
on  the  multitude  to  aid  it  in  establishing  its  own  ;  while  Chabot, 
Santerre,  and  the  marquis  de  Sainte-Hurugue  agitated  in  the 
faubourgs.  The  anniversary  of  the  Jeu  de  Paume  was  ap- 
proaching, and  a  formidable  insurrection  was   in  preparation. 


THE   LEGISLATIVE   ASSEMBLY— THE   GIRONDISTS.  525 

On  that  day,  the  20th  of  June,  thirty  thousand  men,  armed 
with  pikes,  descended  from  the  faubourgs,  and  marched  towards 
the  place  of  session  of  the  assembly,  where  their  chief  was  en- 
gaged in  pronouncing  a  furious  discourse.  His  hideous  cortege 
filed  into  the  hall,  singing  the  bloody  chorus  of  ga  ira,  and 
amid  cries  of  Vivent  les  sans-culottes  !  d  has  le  veto  !  From 
thence,  Santerre  and  Sainte-Hurugue  conducted  them  to  the 
Tuileries,  the  gates  of  which  the  king  commanded  to  be  opened. 
He  presented  himself,  almost  alone,  before  the  insurgents  ;  and, 
summoned  by  them  to  sanction  the  two  decrees,  resisted  with 
admirable  courage.  He  dared  not,  however,  refuse  the  bonnet 
rouge,  which  was  presented  to  him  at  the  end  of  a  pike,  and 
which  he  placed  on  his  head,  amid  the  plaudits  of  the  populace. 
At  length,  Petion  arrived  and  harangued  the  multitude,  who 
dispersed,  without  resistance, — satisfied,  for  the  moment,  with 
having  insulted  royalty  with  impunity. 

The  constitutionalists,  indignant  at  this  outrage,  besought  the 
king  to  grant  them  his  confidence  and  accept  their  support. 
The  due  de  la  Rochefoucauld-Liancourt  proposed  to  conduct 
him  to  Rouen,  where  he  held  a  command ;  and  La  Fayette  im- 
plored him  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  his  army.  The  un- 
fortunate monarch,  however,  seemed  blinded  by  some  fatality, 
and  refused  these  propositions.  La  Fayette  hastened  to  Paris, 
and  demanded  of  the  assembly  the  destruction  of  the  sect  of  Ja- 
cobins, and  the  punishment  of  the  ringleaders  of  the  20th  of 
June.  Before,  however,  inviting  him  to  the  honour  of  a  place 
among  them,  the  assembly  deliberated  if  they  should  not  arraign 
him  as  a  deserter  from  his  post.  La  Fayette  reckoned  upon 
the  national  guard  to  support  him  in  closing  the  clubs : — the 
court,  however,  caused  the  failure  of  his  project, — the  national 
guard  refused  to  respond  to  his  appeal, — and  he  returned  to  the 
army,  with  the  loss  cf  his  influence  and  popularity. 


526 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


INSURRECTION   OF   THE   10th   OF  AUGUST- 
FLIGHT  OF  LA  FAYETTE. 


HE  foreign  sovereigns  were  still 
collecting  formidable  masses 
on  the  frontiers,  while  the  di- 
vision of  parties  at  home  ren^ 
dered  the  situation  of  the  king- 
dom daily  more  alarming.  In 
the  assembly,  the  king  was  the 
object  of  the  most  violent  in- 
vectives, and  the  question  of 
forfeiture  was  already  agitated 
in  that  body,  when,  on  the  5th 
of  July,  the  assembly  declared 
the  country  in  danger.  All 
citizens  capable  of  bearing  arms  were  called  into  activity,  pikes 
were  distributed,  battalions  of  volunteers  enrolled,  and  a  camp 
formed  at  Soissons.  The  revolutionary  enthusiasm  was  at  its 
height,  when  the  federated  Marseillois  arrived  at  Paris.  Potion 
became  the  object  of  the  popular  adoration,  and,  on  the  anni- 
versary of  the  14th  of  July,  the  universal  cry  of  the  federa- 
tion was  "Pe'tion  or  death."  The  club  of  the  Feuillants  was 
closed,  the  companies  of  grenadiers  and  chasseurs  of  the  na- 
tional guard  were  broken,  the  Swiss  troops  and  the  regiments 
of  the  line  removed,  and  all  things  were  tending  towards  a 
catastrophe. 

Meantime,  the  enemy  was  in  motion.  The  duke  of  Bruns- 
wick, preceded  by  a  threatening  manifesto,  was  advancing  at 
the  head  of  seventy  thousand  Prussians  and  sixty-eight  thou- 
sand Austrians,  Hessians,  and  emigrants.  The  manifesto  in 
question  fulminated  fearful  menaces  against  Paris,  and  all  other 
towns  which  should  have  the  audacity  to   defend  themselves. 


INSURRECTION   OF  THE   10th   OF  AUGUST.  527 

It  excited  everywhere  the  indignation  of  the  populace,  and  pro- 
duced a  general  rising.  In  Paris,  the  popular  party  was  de- 
sirous at  once  to  annul  the  king's  authority.  Robespierre, 
Danton,  Camille  Desraoulins,  Fabre  d'Eglantine,  and  the  infa- 
mous Marat,  harangued  the  multitude  and  inflamed  its  madness. 
On  the  3d  of  August,  the  mayor  Petion  presented  himself  be- 
fore the  assembly,  and,  in  the  name  of  the  city  and  the  sections, 
demanded  the  deposition  of  the  king.  The  petition  was  re- 
ferred to  a  committee  of  twelve  members,  and  a  few  days 
afterwards  the  question  of  sending  La  Fayette  for  trial  was 
discussed.  He  escaped  by  a  small  majority,  and  the  people 
hooted  and  maltreated  those  who  had  voted  in  his  favour. 
Scenes  of  disorder  were  daily  multiplied,  and  the  insurgents 
fixed  the  morning  of  the  10th  of  August  for  an  attack  on  the 
palace. 

The  faubourg  Saint-Antoine,  whither  the  Jacobins  repaired 
in  procession,  was  the  centre  of  the  insurrection ;  and  there  it 
was  determined  to  leave  Pe'tion  behind,  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
lieving him  from  all  responsibility,  and  to  substitute  an  insur- 
rectionary municipality  for  the  council  of  the  commune.  At 
the  same  time,  the  agitators  spread  themselves  through  the 
barracks  of  the  confederated  Marseillois  and  Bretons.  In- 
formed of  these  alarming  preparations,  the  court  had  put  the 
chateau  in  a  state  of  defence.  The  interior  was  guarded  by 
eight  or  nine  hundred  Swiss,  and  by  a  body  of  gentlemen  armed 
with  swords  and  pistols.  Several  battalions  of  national  guards, 
and,  among  others,  those  of  the  Filles- Saint-  Thomas  and  the 
Petits-Peres,  distinguished  for  their  royalist  sentiments,  occu- 
pied the  courts  and  external  posts ;  but  a  fatal  event  disturbed 
their  resolution.  Mandat,  their  commandant-general,  was  sum- 
moned before  the  new  council  of  the  commune  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  his  conduct,  and  butchered  by  the  mob  on  the  steps  of 
the  Hotel  de  Ville.  Santerre  was  immediately  invested  with 
the  command  of  the  national  guard  ;  and  the  court  found  itself 
thus  deprived  of  its  firmest  and  most  influential  defender.  The 
insurgents,  animated  by  the  terrible  Danton,  advanced  in  seve- 
ral columns  and  pointed  their  cannon  against  the  chateau.  The 
king,  overwhelmed  with  grief,  took  a  review  of  his  defenders ; 
but  even  in  the  ranks  of  the  national  guard  the  cries  of  Vive  le 
roi  !  were  drowned  amid  those  of  Vive  Petion  ! — d  has  le  veto  ! 


528  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 

— d  has  le  traltre  !  The  procureur  syndic,  Rocderer,  advanced 
towards  the  insurgents,  and  read  to  them  that  article  of  the  law 
which  enjoined  the  repelling  of  force  by  force ;  but  he  was  fee- 
bly seconded  by  the  national  guard,  and  the  insurgents  drew 
fresh  daring  from  that  fact.  Then  Roederer  returned  into  the 
chateau,  and  declared  to  the  royal  family  that  there  was  no 
longer  safety  for  them  but  in  the  bosom  of  the  legislative  as- 
sembly. "  Let  us  go,  sire,"  said  the  queen,  presenting  him 
with  a  pistol,  "the  moment  to  show  yourself  has  arrived." 
Louis  made  no  answer  ;  but,  after  a  few  moments,  he  gave  the 
signal  for  departure,  and  repaired  to  the  hall  of  the  assembly 
amid  the  insults  and  clamours  of  the  populace.  Vergniaud 
presided  over  the  chamber,  and  the  king  placed  himself  by  his 
side  ;  but  Chabot  having  reminded  the  assembly  that  they 
could  not  deliberate  in  the  presence  of  the  king,  Louis  and  his 
family  withdrew  behind  the  president  into  the  obscure  box  of 
the  logographe,  (short-hand  writer.) 

The  cause  of  the  contest  had  ceased  to  exist  since  the  king's 
departure  for  the  assembly;  yet  it  continued,  nevertheless,  to 
rage  furiously  between  the  Swiss  and  the  assailants,  of  whom 
the  Marseillois  and  Bretons  formed  the  advanced  guard.  The 
attack  was  directed  by  the  daring  Westermann,  formerly  a  sub- 
altern adjutant.  The  Swiss,  whom  their  first  fire  had  rendered 
masters  of  the  Carousel,  were  soon  driven  back  by  the  multi- 
tude and  cut  to  pieces.  This  was  the  last  day  of  the  monarchy. 
The  new  municipality  came  before  the  assembly  to  demand  the 
recognition  of  its  powers,  preceded  by  three  banners,  on  which 
were  inscribed  the  words  patrie,  liberte,  egalite,  (our  country, 
liberty,  equality;)  and  concluded  its  address  by  demanding  the 
Icing's  deposition  and  a  national  convention.  Vergniaud  re- 
plied by  proposing  the  convocation  of  an  assembly  extraordi- 
nary, the  dismissal  of  the  ministers,  and  the  suspension  of  the 
royal  office.  These  measures  were  approved :  the  Girondin 
ministers  were  recalled,  Louis  XVI.  was  conducted  to  the  Tem- 
ple, and  the  23d  of  September  was  fixed  for  the  opening  of  the 
assembly,  which  was  to  decide  on  the  destinies  of  the  nation. 
From  that  moment  the  revolutionary  movement  was  directed 
rather  to  the  maintenance  of  the  public  safety  than  the  promo- 
tion of  liberty ;  and  La  Fayette  perceived  that  such  was  its 
future  mission,  after  having  himself  made  incredible  efforts  for 


THE    TEMPLE. 


C7 


2U 


FLIGHT   OF   LA  FAYETTE. 


531 


the  re-establishment  of  the  constitutional  monarchy.  The  ene- 
my's army  was  approaching,  and  the  country  was  menaced  by 
civil  war.  Under  these  circumstances,  La  Fayette  could  not 
hesitate  between  the  resignation  of  his  command  and  the  chance 
of  provoking  internal  strife.  He  abandoned  his  army,  accom- 
panied by  Bureau  de  Pusy,  Latour-Maubourg,  and  Alexandre 
de  Lameth,  and  passed  the  frontier.  Recognised  by  the  Aus- 
trian posts,  he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  by  the  emperor, 
first  at  Magdeburg,  and  afterward  at  Olmutz,  in  defiance  of  the 
law  of  nations.  There  he  exhibited  a  noble  courage  during 
four  years  of  cruel  captivity.  His  release  was  made  conditional, 
on  certain  retractations  which  were  required  from  him ;  and 
he  chose  rather  to  remain  in  fetters  than  abjure  the  cause  to 
which  he  had  dedicated  his  fortune  and  life. 


532 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  TER- 
ROR —  SEPTEMBER  MASSACRES  —  BATTLE 
OF  VALMY. 


N  Paris,  the  victor  party 
of  the  10th  of  August 
proceeded  to  the  establish- 
ment of  its  authority,  by 
the  most  violent  measures. 
It  caused  all  the  statues 
of  the  kings  to  be  thrown 
down,  abrogated  the  de- 
partmental directory,  and 
abolished  the  qualifica- 
tions required  by  law  for 
the  citizen  franchise — 
thereby  opening  up  to  the 
multitude  an  unrestricted 
access  into  the  government.  Finally,  the  same  party  de- 
manded from  the  assembly  the  establishment  of  an  extraordi- 
nary tribunal  for  the  trial  of  those  whom  it  called  the  conspi- 
rators of  the  10th  of  August.  The  required  tribunal  was 
established  ;  but  its  administration  of  justice  seemed  too  tardy 
to  the  savage  crowd,  which  obeyed  the  inspirations  of  Marat, 
Panis,  Sergent,  Jourdeuil,  Collot-d'Herbois,  Billaud-Varennes, 
and  Tallien,  and  was,  above  all,  swayed  by  the  turbulent  and 
terrible  Danton,  recently  appointed  to  the  ministry  of  justice, 
and  named  the  Mirabeau  of  the  mob. 

The  Prussians,  supported  by  thirty-six  thousand  Austrians 
and  ten  thousand  Hessians,  menaced  the  northern  frontier ;  and 
six  thousand  French  emigrants,  under  the  prince  de  Conde", 
marched,  in  co-operation  with  them,  against  France.  The 
army  of  Sedan  was  without  a  leader,  and  the  foreign  invasion 


COMMENCEMENT   OF   THE   REIGN   OF   TERROR.  533 

rapidly  advanced.  Longwy,  invested  by  the  invaders,  capitu- 
lated, Verdun  was  bombarded,  and  the  road  from  that  place  to 
Paris  was  open.  Terror  reigned  in  the  capital,  and  in  the  ex- 
ecutive council  the  question  of  retiring  beyond  the  Loire  was 
debated.  Danton,  however,  contended  that  France  was  Paris, 
and  there  they  must  maintain  themselves  at  all  risks  and  what- 
ever cost.  He  concluded  his  address  by  these  portentous  words : 
"  My  advice  is,  that,  for  the  purpose  of  confounding  the  agi- 
tators and  arresting  the  enemy,  it  behooves  us  to  strike  terror 
into  the  royalists." 

Accordingly,  numerous  arrests  were  immediately  ordered,  the 
prisoners  being  selected  from  the  dissentient  classes  of  the  no- 
bles and  clergy.  Regiments  were  marched  to  the  frontier,  the 
drums  beat  to  arms,  and  cannon  were  fired.  The  news  of  the 
taking  of  Verdun  reached  Paris  in  the  night  between  the  1st 
and  2d  of  September,  and  spread  dismay  throughout  the  capi- 
tal. The  populace  seized  upon  this  moment  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  its  execrable  projects  :  the  tocsin  was  sounded,  the 
barriers  closed,  and  the  massacres  of  the  prisons  commenced. 
During  three  days,  the  unhappy  nobles  and  priests  recently 
consigned  to  the  Abbaye,  the  Conciergerie,  the  Carmes,  and 
the  Force,  were  slaughtered  by  three  hundred  murderers,  amid 
a  hideous  parody  of  judicial  forms.  On  the  part  of  the  vic- 
tims, traits  of  noble  resignation  and  the  most  heroic  devotion, 
and  on  that  of  the  butchers,  acts  of  atrocious  madness  were 
multiplied  through  all  that  fearful  time.  Skilful  in  the  inven- 
tion of  tortures  for  those  even  whom  their  hands  could  not 
reach,  they  enacted  their  horrible  saturnalia  beneath  the  walls 
of  the  Temple  itself — presenting  to  the  eyes  of  the  queen,  at 
the  windows  of  that  royal  prison,  the  bleeding  head  of  her 
friend,  the  unfortunate  princess  de  Lamballe.  The  assembly 
would  have  put  a  stop  to  these  massacres,  but  wanted  the  power. 
The  mayor  Petion  was  suspended  from  his  functions,  the  good 
among  the  citizens  were  terror-struck,  and  the  mob  reigned 
supreme  in  Paris.  These  dreadful  scenes  did  irreparable  in- 
jury to  the  revolutionary  cause,  and  their  punishment  returned 
at  last  on  the  heads  of  their  ferocious  authors. 

The  Prussians  continued  to  advance ;  and  Dumouriez,  who 
had  been  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  army  on  the  Moselle, 
threw  himself,  by  an  inspiration  of  genius,  into  the  forest  of 

2c2 


534  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

Argonne,  the  only  position  in  which  he  could  arrest  the  march 
of  the  enemy.     There,  he  established  the  main  body  of  his  army 
at  Grand-Pre*  and  Les  Islettes,  and  wrote  as  follows  to  the  as- 
sembly : — "  I  am  waiting   for  the  Prussians.      The  camp  of 
Grand-Prd  and  that  of  Les  Islettes  are  the  Thermopylae  of 
France;  but  I  shall  be  more  fortunate  than  Leonidas."     The 
Prussians  were,  in  fact,  compelled  to  suspend  their  march ;  but 
a  fault  committed  by  Dumouriez  compelled  him  to  abandon  his 
position  and  fall  back  on  the  camp  of  Sainte-Menehould,  where 
he  concentrated  his  forces  and  awaited  the  reinforcements  which 
Beurnonville  and  Kellermann  were  leading  towards  him.     His 
army  amounted  to  seventy  thousand  men.     On  the  20th  of 
September,  the  Prussians  attacked  Kellermann,  at  Valmy,  with 
the  intention  of  cutting  off  the  retreat  of  the  French  army. 
The  action  was  confined  to  a  sharp  cannonade,  which  was  pro- 
longed until  the  evening,  and  the  honour  of  the  day  remained 
with  the  French.     This  first  success,  unimportant  as  it  was  in 
other  respects,  animated  the  republican  army  and  gave  it  confi- 
dence in  itself,  at  the  same  time  that  it  surprised  the  enemy,  to 
whom  the  emigrants  had  spoken  of  this  invading  campaign  as 
of  a  mere  military  promenade.     The  duke  of  Brunswick  was 
without  magazines,  and  the  season  was  growing  unfavourable. 
He  offered  to  retire,  on  condition  that  the  French  should  re- 
store the  constitutional   king   to  his  throne.      The  executive 
council  replied  "  that  the  French  republic  could  listen  to  no  pro- 
position until  the  Prussian  troops  should  have  evacuated  the 
territory  of  France."     Brunswick  thereupon  ordered  a  retreat, 
which  was  commenced  on  the  30th  of  September.     The  French 
re-entered  Verdun  and  Longwy,  and  the  enemy  repassed  the 
Rhine  at  Coblentz.     The  campaign  had  been  marked,  likewise, 
by  other  successes  at  different  points.     On  the  Rhine,  Custine 
had  possessed  himself  of  Treves,  Spires,  and  Mayence ;  Mon- 
tesquiou  had  invaded  Savoy,  and  Anselme  the  county  of  Nice. 
Everywhere  the  French  armies  had  resumed  the  offensive,  and 
the  revolution  was  triumphant. 


THE  NATIONAL  CONVENTION. 


535 


ROBESPIERRE    AND     DANTON. 


THE  NATIONAL  CONVENTION. 


HE  first  act  of  the  new  as- 
sembly, which  assumed  the 
title  of  the  National  Con- 
vention, was  to  abolish  roy- 
alty and  proclaim  the  repub- 
lic ;  its  next,  to  declare  that 
it  would  date  from  the  year 
I.  of  the  French  republic. 
These  measures  were  voted 
by  unanimous  acclamation ;  but  a  short  time  only  had  elapsed 
ere  the  two  parties  who,  towards  its  close,  had  divided  the  legis- 
lative assembly,  recommenced  a  furious  contest,  the  issue  of 
which  was  fatal  to  both.  The  parties  in  question  were  that  of 
the  Girondins,  who  sat  on  the  right  of  the  assembly,  and  that 
of  the  Mountain,  who  occupied  the  upper  part  of  the  left,  from 
which  position  they  derived  the  name  by  which  they  were  de- 
signated. The  first  of  these,  respectable  alike  by  their  intelli- 
gence and  the  uprightness  of  their  intentions,  were  sincerely 
republicans  ;  but,  in  the  volcanic  condition  at  which  the  nation 
had  arrived,  their  disgust  for  the  multitude  and  their  repug- 
nance towards  all  violent  measures  placed  them  in  a  false  po- 


536  INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 

sition,  and  they  had  lost  the  confidence  of  the  constitutionalists 
■without  acquiring  that  of  the  democrats.  The  Mountain  party, 
less  enlightened  and  less  eloquent  than  the  Girondins,  were 
more  consistent,  more  decided,  and  nowise  scrupulous  in  the 
choice  of  means.  The  extreme  of  democracy  appeared  to  them 
the  best  of  possible  governments,  and  their  principal  leaders 
•were  Danton,  Robespierre,  and  Marat.  The  latter  two  of  these, 
in  particular,  were  objects  of  hatred  to  the  Girondins.  Robes- 
pierre, moderately  endowed  with  talents,  but  devoured  by  envy 
and  ambition,  had  hitherto  kept  himself  aloof,  always  declaring, 
whether  in  the  constituent  assembly,  in  the  Jacobin  club,  which  he 
ruled,  or  in  the  convention,  against  those  who,  by  turns,  had  ob- 
tained the  ascendency  in  each.  He  aimed  at  the  highest  place 
for  himself;  and,  associating  the  cause  of  his  own  vanity  with  the 
passions  of  the  populace,  he  triumphed  over  all  superiority  by 
branding  it  with  the  names,  at  that  time  odious,  of  aristocracy 
and  privilege.  He  imposed  on  the  multitude  by  an  austere  life 
and  the  externals  of  patriotism,  and  won  its  affections  by  lavish- 
ing on  it  the  wealth  and  blood  of  the  vanquished.  Marat,  a 
furious  fanatic,  had  made  himself  the  avowed  apostle  of  murder 
in  his  discourses  and  in  his  infamous  journal,  U  Ami  du  Peuple, 
(The  Friend  of  the  People.)  He  advocated  a  dictatorship  to 
combat  the  enemies  of  the  revolution,  and  extermination  in 
the  mass  for  their  removal.  These  two  leaders,  worthy  the  one 
of  the  other,  left  far  behind  them  Danton  and  his  partisans, 
who,  in  the  career  of  murder,  would  have  paused  at  the  massa- 
cres of  September.  In  the  assembly,  the  Girondins  prevailed 
over  their  rivals,  and  they  had  the  departments  in  their  favour  ; 
but  the  terrible  commune  of  Paris  was  devoted  to  the  Montag- 
nards,  who,  by  its  means,  directed  the  insurrections ;  by  that 
of  the  Jacobins,  the  public  mind,  and,  finally,  the  sections  and 
the  faubourgs  by  the  aid  of  the  sans-culottes.  A  third  party, 
but  without  decided  opinions  and  without  system,  fluctuated  be- 
tween the  two  others,  and  was  known  as  the  party  of  the  Plain, 
or  of  the  Marais.  It  was  made  up  of  men  for  the  most  part 
well-intentioned,  but  wanting  in  firmness.  So  long  as  they  had 
nothing  to  apprehend  for  themselves,  they  voted  for  the  Gi- 
ronde,  and  kept  it  in  a  majority ;  but  fear  finally  flung  them 
into  the  ranks  of  the  opposing  party. 

The  Girondins,  and,  among  others,  the  spirited  Barbaroux, 


THE   NATIONAL   CONVENTION.  537 

chief  of  the  Marseille-is,  accused  Robespierre  of  aiming  at  a 
tyranny ;  but  this  accusation,  ill  sustained,  recoiled  upon  Ma- 
rat, who  was  the  daily  panegyrist  of  murder.  The  latter  sought 
to  clear  himself  from  the  charge,  but  his  appearance  in  the 
tribune  excited  a  movement  of  horror  ;  and,  when  this  fearful 
man  calmly  exclaimed,  "  I  have,  in  this  assembly,  many  per- 
sonal enemies,"  "All,  all !"  was  the  general  cry.  This  attack, 
however,  had,  notwithstanding,  no  result ;  but  a  few  days  later 
it  was  resumed  against  Robespierre.  "  No  one,"  said  the  latter, 
"dares  accuse  me  to  my  face."  "  I  dare  !"  exclaimed  Louvet, 
and,  rushing  to  the  tribune,  he  overwhelmed  Robespierre  by  a. 
brilliant  and  vigorous  denunciation,  prefacing  each  new  enume- 
ration of  a  grievance  by  the  emphatic  formula,  "  Robespierre, 
/accuse  thee."  The  future  tyrant  would  have  been  conquered 
on  that  very  day,  but  he  asked  and  obtained  a  week  to  prepare 
his  defence,  and  the  dispute  was  terminated  by  the  order  of  the 
day.  Thus  it  was  that  the  Girondins  contributed  to  swell,  by 
their  attacks,  the  importance  of  their  adversaries,  not  perceiv- 
ing that  they  must  conquer  and  crush  them,  or  perish  them- 
selves. Powerless  against  the  citizens,  they  abandoned,  in  ad- 
dition, the  club  of  the  Jacobins  to  their  enemies,  and  irritated 
the  populace  of  Paris  by  demanding  that  the  guard  of  the  as- 
sembly should  be  composed  of  a  body  drawn  from  the  depart- 
ments. From  this  circumstance,  they  acquired  the  name  of 
Federalists,  with  the  reproach  of  seeking  to  arm  the  provinces 
against  the  capital ;  while  the  Mountain  party  procured  a  decree 
declaratory  of  the  unity  and  indivisibility  of  the  republic. 


08 


538 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 


TRIAL  AND  EXECUTION  OF  LOUIS  XVI. 


HE  French  arms  were  triumphant 
in  Belgium,  where,  on  the  6th 
of  November,  Dumouriez  gained 
the  celebrated  victory  of  Jem- 
mapes  over  the  Austrians,  near 
Mons.  On  the  14th,  he  entered 
Brussels,  while  his  generals  took 
possession  of  Namur  and  Ant- 
1  werp.  The  Austrians  were 
ja-  driven  back  beyond  the  Boer, 
and  all  Belgium  was  subdued. 
£ 5^  From  that  time  began  the  dis- 
SJC_  sensions  between  the  conqueror 
Dumouriez  and  the  Jacobins. 
These  latter  pounced  upon  the 
conquered  provinces  as  their  prey.  The  Flemings  had  received 
the  French  enthusiastically,  as  liberators ;  but  the  Jacobins 
soon  estranged  them  by  oppressing  them  with  extortions,  and 
delivering  them  over  to  an  odious  state  of  anarchy.  Indignant 
at  their  proceedings,  Dumouriez  repaired  to  Paris,  with  the  two- 
fold object  of  repressing  their  violence  and  saving  Louis  XVI. 
His  efforts,  however,  in  the  one  cause  and  the  other,  were  alike 
powerless. 

For  the  last  four  months,  the  unfortunate  monarch  had  lan- 
guished in  the  tower  of  the  Temple,  with  the  queen,  Madame 
Elizabeth,  his  sister,  an  angel  of  gentleness  and  goodness,  and 
his  two  children,  dividing  his  hours  betwixt  the  care  of  their 
education  and  reading.  The  city  exercised  a  cruel  surveillance 
over  its  captives,  and  laboured,  by  overwhelming  them  with 
mortifications,  to  prepare  them  for  the  frightful  catastrophe 
which  awaited  them.  The  discussion  on  the  trial  of  the  king 
was  opened  in  the  convention  on  the  13th  of  November,  and 


TRIAL  AND  EXECUTION  OF  LOUIS  XVI.  539 

the  principal  charges  against  him  arose  out  of  papers  found  at 
the  Tuileries  in  an  iron  chest,  the  secret  of  which  had  been  re- 
vealed to  the  minister  Roland.  Therein  were  discovered  all 
the  plottings  and  intrigues  of  the  court  against  the  revolution, 
as  well  as  the  arrangements  with  Mirabeau  and  the  general 
Bouille\  Other  papers,  too,  found  in  the  office  of  the  civil  list, 
seemed  to  establish  the  fact  that  Louis  XVI.  had  not  been  alto- 
gether a  stranger  to  the  movements  negotiated  in  Europe  in  his 
favour.  As  king,  however,  the  constitution  had  declared  him 
inviolable ;  besides,  he  was  deposed,  and  could  not,  but  in  defi- 
ance of  every  law,  be  condemned  for  acts  anterior  to  his  depo- 
sition. The  Montagnards  themselves  felt  all  the  illegality  of 
the  proceedings  directed  against  him.  Robespierre,  in  demand- 
ing his  death,  repudiated  all  forms  as  fictions,  and  relied,  as 
did  Saint-Just,  solely  on  reasons  of  state.  «  What,"  said  the 
latter,  "  have  not  good  citizens  and  true  friends  of  liberty  to 
fear,  when  they  see  the  axe  tremble  in  your  hands,  and  a  peo- 
ple, in  the  very  dawn  of  its  freedom,  respecting  the  memory  of 
its  chains  ?"  The  Mountain  party,  in  earnestly  labouring  for 
the  condemnation  of  the  king,  had  a  further  object  than  the 
single  one  of  punishing  him.  They  were  anxious  to  crush  the 
Gironde,  which  had  openly  manifested  a  desire  to  save  him,  and 
to  arrive  at  power  by  prolonging  the  revolutionary  movement 
through  the  means  of  this  frightful  coup  d'etat.  The  large 
majority  of  the  assembly  persisted  in  the  determination  to  sub- 
mit this  great  process  to  judicial  forms  ;  and  Louis  XVI.,  who 
had  already  been  separated  from  his  family,  appeared  as  a  cul- 
prit before  the  convention,  whose  jurisdiction  he  did  not  chal- 
lenge. His  countenance  was  firm  and  noble  ;  his  answers  were 
precise,  touching,  and  almost  always  triumphant.  Conducted 
back  to  the  Temple,  he  demanded  a  defender,  and  named  Tar- 
get and  Tronchet.  The  first  of  these  refused  the  office,  and  the 
venerable  Malesherbes  offered  himself  in  his  place,  and  wrote 
to  the  convention  in  these  memorable  words:  "Twice  have  I 
been  called  to  the  councils  of  him  who  was  my  master,  in  the 
days  when  that  function  was  an  object  of  ambition  to  all  men. 
I  owe  him  the  same  service,  now  that  it  is  one  which  many  find 
dangerous."  His  request,  which  was  granted,  deeply  affected 
Louis  XVI.  When  he  appeared  before  him,  the  monarch 
pressed  him  in  his  arms,  and  said,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  "You 


540  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

expose  your  own  life,  and  will  not  save  mine."  Tronchet  and 
Malesherbes  immediately  set  about  the  preparation  of  the  king's 
defence,  and  associated  with  themselves  M.  de  Seze,  by  whom 
it  was  pronounced,  and  who  concluded  his  pathetic  pleading  by 
these  true  and  solemn  words  :  "Placed  on  the  throne  at  twenty 
years  of  age,  Louis  carried  thither  the  example  of  morality, 
justice,  and  economy.  He  brought  with  him  no  weakness,  and 
no  corrupt  passions.  He  was  the  unvarying  friend  of  his  peo- 
ple. That  people  desired  the  destruction  of  a  burdensome  im- 
post, and  Louis  destroyed  it ;  the  people  desired  the  abolition 
of  servitude,  and  Louis  abolished  it ;  the  people  solicited  re- 
forms, and  Louis  gave  them  ;  the  people  sought  to  alter  its  laws, 
the  king  consented;  the  people  desired  that  their  alienated 
rights  should  be  restored  to  millions  of  Frenchmen,  and  Louis 
restored  them ;  the  people  sighed  for  liberty,  and  the  king  be- 
stowed it.  The  glory  cannot  be  denied  to  Louis  of  having  even 
anticipated  the  wishes  of  his  people  in  his  sacrifices,  and  yet  he 

it  is  whom  you  are  asked  to .     Citizens,  I  dare  not  speak 

it !  I  pause  before  the  majesty  of  history.  Remember  that 
history  shall  hereafter  judge  your  judgment  of  to-day,  and  that 
the  judgment  of  history  will  be  that  of  ages  !"  But  the  pas- 
sions of  the  judges  were  blind  and  implacable ;  a  unanimous 
vote  declared  Louis  guilty,  and  the  appeal  to  the  people  which 
the  Girondins  demanded  was  refused. 

It  only  now  remained  to  decide  what  punishment  should  be 
inflicted.  The  ferment  in  Paris  was  at  its  height ;  a  furious 
multitude  surrounded  the  door  of  the  assembly,  denouncing 
frightful  menaces  against  all  who  should  incline  to  mercy.  At 
length,  after  forty  hours  of  nominal  deliberation,  the  president 
Vergniaud  announced  the  result  of  the  votes.  Out  of  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-one,  there  was  a  majority  of  twenty-six  for 
death.  Malesherbes  endeavoured  to  address  the  assembly,  but 
his  voice  was  choked  by  sobs.  A  respite  was  demanded,  but 
in  vain;  and  the  fatal  sentence  was  pronounced.  Louis  had 
one  last  and  heartrending  interview  with  his  family  after  his 
condemnation,  and  then  prepared  himself  for  death.  He  slept 
calmly,  received  the  offices  of  the  church,  and  confided  his  last 
wishes  to  his  faithful  and  only  remaining  servant,  Cle'ry. 
Shortly  afterwards,  Santerre  arrived,  and  Louis  went  forth  to 
execution.     He  ascended  the  scaffold  with  a  firm  step,  and  on 


TRIAL   AND   EXECUTION   OF  LOUIS   XVI. 


541 


his  knees  received  the  benediction  of  the  priest,  who  thus  ad- 
dressed him:  "Son  of  Saint  Louis,  ascend  to  heaven!"  He 
then  suffered  his  hands  to  be  tied,  and  turned  to  the  multitude. 
"  I  die  innocent,"  he  said;  «  I  forgive  my  foes;  and  for  you, 
oh  !  wretched  people" —  !  Here  his  voice  was  drowned  in  the 
roll  of  the  drums,  the  executioners  seized  him,  and  in  another 
instant  he  had  ceased  to  live.  Thus  perished,  on  the  21st  of 
January,  1793,  after  a  reign  of  seventeen  years,  one  of  those 
kings  who  have  most  illustrated  the  throne  by  their  virtues. 
He  had  the  honesty  of  intention  necessary  for  originating  re- 
forms, but  wanted  the  strength  of  character  necessary  for  their 
enforcement — the  firmness  which  might  have  enabled  him  to 
direct  the  revolution  and  bring  it  to  a  favourable  issue. 


2  V 


542 


INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


VENDEAN  WAR— DESERTION  OF  DUMOURIEZ. 


FTER  the  outrage  of  the  21st  of 
January,  indignant  Europe  flew  to 
arms  with  one  accord.  From  that 
moment,  the  revolution  reckoned 
as  its  declared  enemies  England, 
Holland,  Spain,  the  whole  of  the 
Germanic  confederation,  Bavaria, 
Swabia,  the  elector  Palatine,  Na- 
ples, and  the  Holy  See,  and  after- 
ward Russia.  Almost  at  the  same 
time,  too,  La  Vende'e  assumed  a 
menacing  and  formidable  aspect. 
France  had  to  contend,  besides  her  enemies  at  home,  against 
three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of  the  best  troops  in  Europe, 
who  were  advancing  upon  all  the  frontiers  of  the  republic.  To 
meet  dangers  so  alarming,  Danton  and  the  Mountain  party,  who 
had  adopted  him  as  their  chief,  by  their  discourses  and  by 
means  of  insurrections,  aroused  the  enthusiasm  and  fanaticism 
of  the  populace  in  the  names  of  liberty,  equality,  and  frater- 
nity, and  kept  it  in  that  perpetual  condition  of  violent  crisis 
that  they  might  be  enabled  to  dispose  of  its  passions  and  its 
madness.  Danton  it  was  who  founded  the  despotism  of  the 
multitude,  under  the  name  of  revolutionary  government.  A 
levy  of  three  hundred  thousand  men  was  ordered,  and  a  tribu- 
nal extraordinary  created,  consisting  of  nine  members,  commis- 
sioned to  punish  the  domestic  enemies  of  the  revolution,  and 
whose  decrees  were  to  be  without  appeal.  The  Girondins  con- 
tended against  an  institution  at  once  so  arbitrary  and  so  formi- 
dable ;  but  their  resistance  was  in  vain.  Stigmatized  with  the 
titles  of  intriguers  and  foes  to  the  people,  already  was  their 
destruction  determined  on.     Marat  and  Robespierre  incited  the 


VENDEAN   WAR.  543 

multitude  to  the  extremes  of  violence  against  that  party,  and  a 
project  for  assassinating  the  entire  body,  in  a  nocturnal  insur- 
rection, was  formed  by  the  Jacobins  and  Cordeliers,  which, 
however,  miscarried.  On  the  following  day,Vergniaud  ascended 
the  tribune,  and  there  denounced  these  murderous  designs. 
"Our  march,"  said  he,  "is  from  crime  to  amnesty,  and  from 
amnesty  to  crime.  A  majority  of  our  citizens  have  arrived  at 
the  point  of  confounding  the  insurrections  of  sedition  with  the 
great  insurrection  of  freedom,  and  mistaking  the  outrages  of 
brigands  for  the  explosions  of  ardent  souls  !  Citizens,  it  is  but 
too  greatly  to  be  feared  that  the  revolution,  like  Saturn,  will 
devour  all  her  children,  one  after  the  other,  and  nourish  only 
despotism,  with  the  multitude  of  calamities  which  follow  in  its 
train."  Prophetic,  but  fruitless  warnings  !  The  insurrection 
of  La  Vendue  redoubled  the  daring  of  the  Jacobins.  Already 
partial  troubles  had  broken  out  in  that  portion  of  Brittany  and 
Poitou,  nearly  covered,  as  it  was,  with  woods,  without  roads  or 
commerce,  and  w^ere  the  absence  of  trade,  by  preventing  the 
development  of  the  middling  classes,  closed  up  the  avenues  to 
knowledge.  There  the  ancient  manners  had  been  preserved, 
accompanied  by  the  prejudices  and  customs  of  feudalism ;  and 
there  the  rural  population  still  remained  submissive  to  their 
priests  and  nobles.  These  latter  had  not  followed  the  tide  of 
emigration.  The  requisition  of  three  hundred  thousand  men 
was  followed  by  the  breaking  forth  of  the  insurrection  gene- 
rally throughout  La  Vendue.  Its  first  leaders  were  the  wagoner 
Cathelineau,  Charette,  a  naval  officer,  and  the  gamekeeper  Stof- 
flet.  Nine  hundred  communes  rose  at  the  sound  of  the  tocsin, 
and  the  principal  nobles,  Bonchamps,  Lescure,  Laroche-Jacque- 
lin,  D'Elbde,  and  Talmont  joined  the  insurgents,  and  eagerly 
seconded  the  movement.  They  defeated  the  troops  of  the  line 
and  battalions  of  the  national  guard  which  marched  against 
them.  All  things,  in  fact,  yielded  before  the  passionate  intre- 
pidity of  the  Vendean  peasants.  Without  arms,  they  seized 
on  the  artillery  by  precipitating  themselves  upon  the  cannon 
which  mowed  them  down.  One  after  the  other,  the  republican 
generals,  Marcd,  Gauvilliers,  Que'tineau,  and  Ligonnier  were 
overthrown.  The  victorious  Vendeans,  masters  of  several 
strongholds,  formed  three  corps  of  from  ten  to  twelve  thousand 
men  each.     The  first  of  these,  under  Bonchamps,  occupied  the 


544  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

banks  of  the  Loire,  and  was  called  the  army  of  Anjou ;  the 
second,  under  D'Elbde,  occupied  the  centre,  and  was  distin- 
guished as  the  grand  army;  und  the  third  formed  the  army 
called  that  of  the  Marais,  under  Charette,  and  occupied  the 
lower  Vendde.  A  council  of  operations  was  established,  and 
Cathelineau  proclaimed  generalissimo.  This  formidable  revolt 
provoked  from  the  convention  measures  still  more  rigorous 
against  the  priests  and  nobles.  All  who  joined  any  assembly 
were  outlawed,  the  property  of  emigrants  was  confiscated,  and 
the  revolutionary  tribunal  entered  on  its  terrible  functions. 
Another  enemy  likewise  declared  himself  about  this  time.  Du- 
mouriez,  after  an  unsuccessful  invasion  of  Holland,  had  lost  the 
battle  of  Nerwinde  against  the  prince  of  Coburg,  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  Austrian  army,  and  been  compelled  to  evacuate 
Belgium.  Long  at  open  war  with  the  Jacobins,  he  had  con- 
templated their  overthrow  and  the  restoration  of  the  constitu- 
tional monarchy.  After  his  defeat  at  Nerwinde,  finding  himself 
more  than  ever  exposed  to  their  furious  attacks,  he  meditated  a 
desertion  from  the  cause  of  the  republic,  and  formed  the  pro- 
ject of  marching  upon  Paris  in  concert  with  the  Austrians.  It 
is  to  be  presumed  that  his  design  was  to  cause  the  young  due 
de  Chartres  (then  in  his  camp,  and  who  had  distinguished  him- 
self at  Valmy  and  Jemmapes)  to  be  crowned.  He  offered  to 
the  Austrians  several  strongholds,  as  a  guarantee  of  his  inten- 
tions ;  but  he  failed  in  the  attempt  to  get  possession  of  these 
places,  and  at  the  same  time  completed  his  own  exposure  to  the 
convention.  That  body,  informed  of  his  designs,  summoned 
him  to  appear  instantly  at  its  bar,  and,  on  his  refusal,  sent  the 
minister  of  war,  Beurnonville,  and  four  deputies,  Camus,  Qui- 
nette,  Lamarque,  and  Bancal,  commissioned  to  bring  him  before 
them,  or  arrest  him  in  the  midst  of  his  army.  Dumouriez  de- 
livered them  up  to  the  Austrians ;  but  he  had  reckoned  too 
confidently  on  the  affection  of  his  troops.  The  republican  en- 
thusiasm took  possession  of  them,  and  Dumouriez  found  him- 
self abandoned.  He  had  then  no  other  resource  than  to  pass 
over  to  the  camp  of  the  Austrians. 


FALL   OF   THE   GIRONDINS. 


545 


FALL  OF   THE  GIRONDINS. 


|HE  Girondins  had  been  as 
earnest  as  the  Mountain  par- 
ty in  their  condemnation  of 
Dumouriez.  They  were,  ne- 
vertheless, accused  of  being 
his  accomplices  ;.  and  Verg- 
niaud,  Brissot,  Guadct,  Gen- 
sonney  and  Pe'tion  became 
the  special  objects  of  the 
atrocious  persecutions  of 
Robespierre  and  Marat.  For 
one  moment,  they  assumed 
an  attitude  of  energy  ;  and 
denounced  Marat  before  the  revolutionary  tribunal.  He  was 
acquitted,  however,  and  carried  in  triumph  into  the  assembly  ; 
and,  from  that  day,  the  sans-culottes  occupied  the  avenues  and 
galleries  of  the  chamber.  Guadet  proposed  vigorous  measures 
for  releasing  the  assembly  from  the  tyranny  of  the  Jacobins  and 
the  citizens, — such,  for  example,  as  the  abolition  of  the  muni- 
cipal body,  and  the  removal  of  the  convention  to  Bourges. 
Barrere,  however,  procured  the  adoption  of  a  middle  course ; 
and  the  assembly  created  a  committee  of  twelve  members,  com- 
missioned to  watch  the  proceedings  of  the  municipal  body,  and 
to  arrest  the  authors  of  plots  against  the  national  representation. 
A  war  of  extermination,  which  finally  proved  fatal  to  the  Gi- 
ronde,  immediately  sprang  up  between  it  and  the  municipality. 
The  commission  of  Twelve,  in  the  first  instance,  spread  terror 
through  that  body,  by  the  arrest  of  the  infamous  Hubert,  the 
author  of  the  execrable  pamphlet  of  the  Pere  Duchesne,  whom 
they  seized  in  the  very  midst  of  the  municipality.  The  Jaco- 
bins, the  Cordeliers,  and  the  sections  declared  their  sittings 
permanent,  and  organized  a  formidable  insurrection,  under  the 


69 


\2 


546  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

direction  of  Danton.  An  immense  multitude  marched  to  the 
assembly ;  where  their  deputies,  being  admitted,  boldly  de- 
manded the  release  of  Ilebert,  and  the  dissolution  of  the 
Twelve.  The  Girondins  resisted ;  but  the  Montagnards  and 
the  sans-adottes  in  the  galleries  broke  out  into  vociferations  and 
menaces  against  them.  The  sitting  -was  prolonged,  amid  fear- 
ful disorder ;  and  at  length,  amid  darkness,  shouts,  and  tumult, 
the  petitioners,  confounded  with  the  Montagnards  on  the  same 
benches,  passed  a  vote  for  the  suppression  of  the  Twelve,  and 
the  enlargement  of  the  prisoners.  This  decree  was  revoked  on 
the  following  day  ;  and  the  corporation,  the  Jacobins,  and  the 
sections  renewed  their  agitation.  Robespierre,  Marat,  Danton, 
Chaumette,  and  Pache,  the  mayor  of  Paris,  combined  to  con- 
duct this  second  insurrection,  which  was  more  formidable  than 
that  which  preceded  it.  Henriot  commanded  the  armed  force  ; 
and  forty  sous  a  day  were  promised  to  each  of  the  sans-culottes, 
for  so  long  as  they  should  continue  under  arms.  Alarm-guns 
were  fired,  the  tocsin  was  sounded,  and  the  insurgents  marched 
against  the  convention.  The  Tuileries,  where  that  body  sat, 
was  blockaded,  and  all  free  deliberation  rendered  impossible. 
Barrere,  therefore,  and  the  committee  of  public  safety,  with 
whom  the  committee  of  Twelve  had  originated,  demanded  its 
suppression,  which  was  definitively  decreed.  This  was  enough 
for  Danton ;  but  not  for  Robespierre,  Marat,  and  the  corpora- 
tion. "We  must  not,"  said  a  Jacobin  deputy,  "  suffer  the  people 
to  cool."  Henriot  placed  the  armed  force  which  he  commanded 
at  the  disposal  of  the  club,  and  the  arrest  of  the  Girondin  de- 
puties was  determined  on.  Marat  himself  sounded  the  tocsin, — 
Henriot  commanded  the  movement, — and,  on  the  2d  of  June, 
eighty  thousand  armed  men  surrounded  the  convention.  The 
intrepid  Lanjuinais  flew  to  the  tribune,  interrupted  by  furious 
vociferations,  and  denounced  the  projects  of  the  factious. 
"Paris  is  pure,"  he  cried,  "but  Paris  is  misled  and  oppressed 
by  tyrants  who  thirst  for  blood,  and  long  for  power."  He  con- 
cluded by  proposing  that  all  the  revolutionary  authorities  of 
the  capital  should  be  dissolved.  The  insurgent  petitioners  en- 
tered the  hall,  at  this  moment,  and  demanded  his  arrest  and 
that  of  his  colleagues.  A  violent  debate  ensued,  and  was  pro- 
ceeding, when  the  deputy  Lacroix  rushed  into  the  chamber, 
complained  of  the  outrages   which  he  had  suffered  from  the 


FALL   OP   THE   GIRONDINS. 


547 


multitude,  and  declared  that  the  convention  was  coerced.  Even 
the  Montagnards  themselves  were  indignant;  and  Danton  ex- 
claimed, that  it  became  them  to  avenge  the  insult  to  the  national 
majesty.  The  convention  rose  in  a  body,  and  set  forward,  with 
its  president  at  its  head.  On  the  Place  du  Carrousel,  it  was  met 
by  Henriot,  on  horseback,  and  sabre  in  hand.  "  What  is  it  that 
the  people  demand  ?"  said  the  president,  Herault  de  Sechelles  ; 
"the  convention  is  occupied  only  for  its  good."  "The  people 
have  not  risen  to  listen  to  set  phrases,"  replied  Henriot ;  »  they 
require  that  twenty-four  of  the  culprits  shall  be  delivered  up  to 
them."  "Let  us  all  be  delivered  up  !"  exclaimed  the  deputies. 
Henriot  pointed  his  cannon  against  them, — and  the  convention 
fell  back.  Surrounded  on  all  sides,  they  returned,  discouraged, 
to  the  hall  of  session ;  the  arrest  of  the  proscribed  members  was 
no  longer  opposed  by  them,  and  Marat  decided,  like  a  dictator, 
upon  their  fate.  Twenty-four  illustrious  Girondins  were  con- 
fined to  their  own  houses  by  the  assembly,  and  the  appeased 
multitude  dispersed ;  but,  from  that  day,  the  party  of  the  Gi- 
ronde  was  broken  down,  and  the  convention  was  no  longer  free. 


548  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


FALL  OF  DANTON. 

ANTON,  and  his  friends  Camille 
Desmoulins,  Philippeaux,  Lacroix, 
Fabre  d'Eglantine,  and  Westermann, 
sought  to  restore  legal  order;  and 
with  that  view  desired  to  arrest  the 
action  of  the  revolutionary  tribunal,  to  empty 
the  prisons  filled  with  suspected  persons,  and 
to  dissolve  the  committees.  With  this  view, 
Camille  Desmoulins,  a  man  full  of  talent  and  energy,  produced, 
under  the  name  of  the  Vieux  Cordelier,  a  journal  inveighing 
against  the  despotism  of  the  dictators.  The  most  formidable  of 
these  was  Robespierre;  and  Camille  and  his  friends  endeavoured 
to  gain  him  over.  But  Robespierre  played  them  one  against 
the  other;  and,  affecting  neutrality  between  the  adverse  parties, 
meditated  the  overthrow  of  their  chiefs,  by  each  other's  means. 
His  colleagues  in  the  committee  of  public  safety  were  furious 
against  Camille  and  the  Dantonists  ;  and  Robespierre  abandoned 
these  latter  to  them — obtaining  from  them,  in  return,  the  heads 
of  Herbert,  Clootz,  Chaumette,  Ronsin,  and  the  principal  anar- 
chists of  the  commune.  This  compact  being  concluded,  he 
ascended  the  tribune,  and  denounced  to  the  convention,  as  foes 
to  the  republic,  the  ultra-revolutionists,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Dantonists  (whom  he  designated  as  the  moderes — '  moderates  ') 
on  the  other.  He  was  followed  by  Saint-Just,  who  spoke  to  the 
same  effect, — thundering  against  the  enemies  of  virtue  and  those 
of  the  terror  government,  to  which  he  procured  to  be  given  the 
most  extensive  powers  for  the  punishment  of  the  parties  in  question. 
The  anarchists  of  the  commune,  Hebert,  Clootz,  Ronsin,  and  their 
accomplices,  were  first  seized  and  condemned,  and  most  of- them 
died  cowards.  The  revolutionary  army  was  broken  up  ;  and  the 
convention  compelled  the  commune  to  appear  at  its  bar,  and 
thank  it  for  the  very  acts  by  which  the  power  of  the  latter  body 


FALL   OF   DANTON. 


549 


was  annulled.  But  the  time  of  the  Dantonists,  too,  was  come. 
Representing,  as  they  did,  the  old  Mountain  party,  their  names, 
especially  that  of  their  chief,  seemed  as  yet,  all-powerful. 
Warned  of  the  hostile  intentions  of  his  enemies,  Danton  replied, 
as  did  of  old  the  due  de  Guise,  "  They  dare  not !"  But  the  com- 
mittee rightly  reckoned  on  the  terror  of  the  assembly ;  and  the 
Dantonists  were  arrested  on  the  10th  Germinal,  (1794.)  Robes- 
pierre prevented  their  being  heard  in  the  assembly.  "  We  will 
see,  this  day,"  he  said,  "  if  the  convention  dares  to  break  down  a 
pretended  idol,  which  has  long  since  fallen  into  decay,  or  if  that 
idol,  in  its  overthrow,  is  to  crush  the  convention  and  the  people 
of  France."  Saint- Just  read  the  report  against  the  accused  par- 
ties ;  and  the  assembly,  stupified  by  terror,  ordered  that  they 
should  be  sent  to  trial.  Arraigned  before  the  revolutionary 
tribunal,  they  distinguished  themselves  by  their  boldness,  and 
the  scorn  which  they  exhibited  towards  their  judges.  On  their 
being  condemned,  Danton  exclaimed:  "We  are  sacrificed  tc 
the  ambition  of  a  few  dastardly  brigands ;  but  they  shall  not  long 
enjoy  their  triumph.  I  drag  after  me  Robespierre — Robespierre 
shall  follow  me."  They  advanced  with  firmness  to  the  place  of 
execution,  amid  a  silent  multitude.  From  that  moment,  no  voice 
was,  for  some  time,  raised  against  the  decemvirs ;  and  the  con- 
vention proclaimed  that  terror  and  all  the  virtues  were  the  order 
of  the  day. 


550 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


FALL  OF  ROBESPIERRE. 


|EARIED  out  and  disgusted  by  the  atroci- 
ties by  which  the  republic  was  disgraced 
at  home,  a  certain  number  of  the  Moun- 
tain party  resolved  to  bring  them  to  a 
close,  and  to  avenge  Danton,  Camille  Des- 
moulins,  and  the  rest  of  their  slaughtered 
friends.  At  the  head  of  these  were  Tallien,  Bourdon  de  l'Oise, 
and  Legendre.  They  were  supported,  in  the  committee  of  pub- 
lic safety,  by  Billaud-Varennes  and  Collot  d'Herbois,  both  of 
whom  were  jealous  of  the  authority  assumed  by  the  triumvirs, 
and,  in  that  for  the  general  security,  by  Vadier,  Voulant,  and 
Amar,  all  of  whom  belonged  to  the  overthrown  faction  of  the 
commune.  Irritated  by  their  obstinate  resistance,  Robespierre 
had  determined  upon  crushing  and  immolating  them ;  and  they 
felt  that  they  must  be  beforehand  with  him,  or  be  his  victims. 
They  began  by  accusing  him  of  tyranny  in  the  committees,  and 
designating  him  under  the  name  of  Pisistratus.  Next,  they 
reproached  him  with  a  desire  to  pass  himself  off  for  a  messen- 
ger from  God,  by  encouraging  certain  mysterious  assemblies, 
held  by  an  old  Chartreux  friar,  Don  Guerle,  and  an  absurd  fana- 
tic, named  Catherine  Theot,  whom  they  sent  to  execution,  in 
spite  of  his  opposition.  From  that  moment,  Robespierre  sel- 
dom appeared  in  the  committees,  but  established  the  centre  of 
his  power  in  the  club  of  the  Jacobins,  from  whence  he  denounced 
those  whom  he  called  Dantonists.  All-powerful  in  this  body, 
master  of  the  lower  orders,  and  supported  by  Fleuriot,  the 
mayor,  by  Henriot,  the  commandant  of  the  armed  force,  and- 
by  the  revolutionary  tribunal,  all  the  members  of  which  were 
his  creatures,  he  thought  himself  strong  enough  to  commence 
the  attack,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  convention  ;  and,  on  the 
8th  Thermidor,  he  there  denounced  the  committees.      He  was 


FALL   OF  ROBESPIERRE.  551 

heard  in  silence  ;  and  experienced  his  first  check  by  having  his 
discourse  referred  to  the  examination  of  those  same  committees 
whom  he  had  accused.  In  the  evening,  he  repaired  to  the 
Jacobins,  and  there  gave  vent  to  his  anger.  He  was  enthusi- 
astically received ;  and,  during  the  night,  all  things  were  pre- 
pared by  his  party  for  an  insurrection ;  while  a  league  was 
formed,  among  the  conventionalists,  between  the  Dantonists, 
the  party  of  the  right,  and  the  Marais.  Under  these  threat- 
ening auspices,  opened  the  sitting  of  the  9th  Thermidor.  Saint- 
Just  ascended  the  tribune,  in  front  of  which  sat  Robespierre. 
He  was  interrupted  by  Tallien  and  Billaud,  who  commenced 
the  attack.  Robespierre  rushed  forward  to  reply  ;  but  was 
met,  on  all  sides,  by  the  cry  of — A  has  le  tyran  !  Tallien 
waved  in  his  hand  a  poniard,  with  which  he  threatened  to  pierce 
the  heart  of  Robespierre,  whom  he  denounced  as  another  Crom- 
well! He  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  decree  for  the  arrest  of 
Henriot,  and  a  declaration  of  the  assembly  that  its  sitting  was 
permanent.  Barrere  caused  it  to  place  itself  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  armed  sections.  "Now,  let  us  think  about  the 
tyrant !"  resumed  Tallien;  while  overwhelming  cries  of  menace 
prevented  Robespierre  from  being  heard.  He  made,  however, 
one  final  effort: — "President  of  murderers  !"  he  cried,  "  for 
the  last  time,  I  ask,  will  you  give  me  a  hearing?"  Unable  to 
obtain  it,  he  stormed  like  a  madman,  flew  from  bench  to  bench 
of  the  assembly,  and  addressed  himself,  with  supplications,  to 
the  members  of  the  right,  who  turned  from  him  with  loathing. 
At  length  he  fell  back  in  his  seat,  exhausted  with  fatigue,  and 
foaming  at  the  mouth.  "Wretch!"  cried  a  member  to  him, 
"the  blood  of  Danton  chokes  thee  !"  His  arrest  was  forthwith 
proposed ;  and  his  brother  and  Lebas  demanded  to  share  his 
fate.  The  assembly  unanimously  ordered  that  they  should  be 
seized,  along  with  Robespierre,  Couthon,  and  Saint-Just ;  and 
delivered  them  into  the  hands  of  the  gendarmes.  "  The  re- 
public," exclaimed  Robespierre,  "is  lost,  and  the  brigands 
triumph!"  The  victory,  however,  was  still  undecided;  the 
Jacobins  had  likewise  declared  themselves  permanent,  swearing 
to  die  rather  than  live  under  a  reign  of  crime.  The  munioipal 
deputies  reparred  to  their  assembly  ;  and  Henriot  traversed 
the  streets,  sabre  in  hand,  and  shouting,  "  To  arms  !"  He  was 
arrested,  however,  along  with  the  national  agent,  Payan,  and 


552  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

bound  with  cords.  During  the  day  the  convention  was  triumph- 
ant, and  in  the  evening  the  insurgents  were  once  more  upper- 
most. They  marched  in  a  body  on  the  prisons,  and  delivered 
Robespierre,  Henriot,  and  their  accomplices.  Henriot  immedi- 
ately caused  the  convention  to  be  surrounded,  and  pointed  the 
cannon  against  it.  Terror  reigned  in  the  assembly ;  but  the 
very  imminence  of  the  peril  inspired  them  with  vigorous  reso- 
lutions. Henriot  was  outlawed ;  his  gunners  refused  to  fire, 
and  fell  back  with  him  upon  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  This  refusal 
decided  the  success  of  the  day.  The  convention,  in  its  turn, 
resumed  the  offensive,  attacked  the  commune,  and  outlawed  its 
rebel  members.  Barras  was  named  commander-in-chief  of  the 
armed  force ;  the  battalions  of  the  sections  swore  to  defend  the 
assembly,  and  defiled  in  the  chamber,  before  it,  animated  by 
FreVon.  "  Set  forward!"  cried  the  president,  "that  day  may 
not  dawn  ere  the  heads  of  the  conspirators  have  fallen."  It 
was  midnight  when  the  armed  bands  marched  against  the  com- 
mune ;  whither  Robespierre  had  been  borne  in  triumph,  and 
where  he  now  sat  motionless,  and  paralyzed  by  terror.  On  the 
Place  de  Greve  the  multitude  read  the  proclamation  of  the 
assembly,  by  which  the  commune  was  outlawed ;  and  the  terri- 
fied groups  dispersed,  leaving  the  place  deserted.  The  Hotel 
de  Ville  was  surrounded,  amid  cries  of  Vive  la  convention ! 
The  proscribed  parties  abandoned  themselves  to  rage  and  de- 
spair. Robespierre  fractured  his  own  jaw  with  a  blow  from  a 
pistol;  Lebas  killed  himself;  the  younger  Robespierre  threw 
himself  out  from  a  window  of  the  third  story,  but  survived  the 
fall ;  Couthon  stabbed  himself,  with  a  trembling  hand,  and 
without  fatal  effect ;  Coffinhal  overwhelmed  Henriot  with  im- 
precations, and  flung  him  from  a  window  into  a  drain.  The 
conquerors  arrived,  and  seized  their  prisoners  ;  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  they  were  led  to  execution.  An  immense  multitude 
crowded  around  the  cart  in  which  Robespierre,  his  head  bound 
with  a  bloody  cloth,  lay  betwixt  Henriot  and  Couthon,  both 
mutilated,  like  himself.  The  people  interchanged  congratula- 
tions and  embraces  before  his  eyes ;  curses  were  poured  out 
against  him ;  and,  at  the  moment  when  his  head  fell  beneath 
the  knife,  long  salvos  of  acclamation  arose  from  the  crowd. 
France  breathed  afresh — and  the  reign  of  terror  was  at  an  end. 


70 


2  W 


BONAPARTE'S   FIRST   CAMPAIGN   IN   ITALY. 


555 


BONAPARTE'S    FIRST   CAMPAIGN  IN  ITALY. 


IT  was  in  1796  that  Bonaparte, 
then  twenty-six  years  of  age, 
was  achieving  the  prodigies  of 
his  Italian  campaign.  His  first 
proclamation  inflamed  the  ar- 
dour of  his  soldiers,  and  his 
words  were  justified  by  deeds. 
The  victories  of  Montenotte 
and  Millesimo  were  the  bril- 
liant coup  d'essai  of  the  young 
general,  powerfully  seconded 
by  his  lieutenants,  Augereau, 
Serrurier,  Massena,  La  Harpe, 
Murat,  and  Joubert.  Besides  these,  he  had  under  his  orders 
Belliard,  Berthier,  Colonel  Rampon,  and  the  illustrious  Lannes, 
then  a  simple  chef  de  bataillon.  All  these  men  were  destined 
to  a  glorious  celebrity.  The  Austrian  generals  Beaulieu  and 
Colli  retired  before  Bonaparte,  who  crossed  the  Alps  and  gained 
the  battle  of  Mondovi,  thereby  subjecting  Piedmont  to  his  arms. 
Victor  Amadeus  III.  accepted  peace  from  the  conqueror,  and 
withdrew  from  the  coalition.  All  the  roads  which  communi- 
cated with  France  were  occupied  by  the  troops  of  the  republic. 


556 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


BATTLE    OF    LODI. 


Bonaparte  deceived  the  Austrians  by  fictitious  manoeuvres, 
passed  the  Po,  and  laid  the  duke  of  Parma  under  contribution. 
He  triumphed  at  Lodi,  and  at  the  passage  of  the  Adda,  where 
his  grenadiers  carried  with  the  bayonet  a  bridge  which  was  swept 
by  the  enemy's  guns.  From  that  moment,  his  army  became  in- 
vincible. Beaulieu  effected  his  retreat,  abandoning  behind  him 
Cremona,  Milan,  Pavia,  Como,  and  Cassano, — into  which  places 
the  French  entered.  Bonaparte  received  the  submission  of  the 
town  of  Genoa,  and  that  of  Hercules  d'Este,  duke  of  Modena. 
That  prince  paid  to  the  French  ten  millions,  and  retired  to 
Venice.  General  Vaubois  took  possession  of  Leghorn,  where 
six  hundred  Corsicans  had  taken  refuge.  These  Bonaparte  sent 
back  to  their  island,  to  get  up  an  insurrection  against  the 
English;  who  were,  in  consequence,  expelled  thence.  The 
conqueror  imposed  on  the  pope,  as  the  conditions  of  peace,  a  pay- 
ment of  twenty-one  millions,  and  one  hundred  master-pieces 
from  his  museums.  The  king  of  Naples  was  taxed  at  six  mil- 
lions. Bonaparte  then  marched  upon  Vienna;  and  the  army 
of  the  Sambre  and  Meuse,  under  Jourdan,  and  that  of  the 
Rhine,  under  Moreau,  moved  in  the  same  direction.  The  arch- 
duke Charles,  the  emperor's  brother,  was  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Austrian  army ;  and  Moreau  began  by  gaining  from  him 
four  consecutive  victories.  He  was,  then,  about  to  join  his 
forces  with  those  of  Jourdan,  when,  inspired  by  the  danger 
in  which  he  saw  himself  placed,  the  archduke  detached  thirty 


GENERAL     HOCHE. 


2w2 


BONAPARTE'S   FIRST   CAMPAIGN    IN   ITALY. 


559 


BATTLE    OF    A  R  COLE. 


thousand  men,  whom  he  sent  against  the  advanced  guard  of 
Jourdan,  overthrew  it,  cut  off  the  communication  between  the 
two  armies,  and  crushed  that  of  the  Sambre  and  Meuse,  com- 
pelling it  to  fall  back,  in  the  greatest  disorder,  on  the  point 
from  whence  it  had  set  out.  He  then  directed  his  entire  forces 
against  Moreau ;  who,  master  of  Ulm  and  encamped  at  the 
gates  of  Munich,  covered  an  immense  ground,  and  reckoned  on 
the  army  of  Jourdan  to  maintain  himself  there.  Deprived  of 
this  succour,  he  commanded,  and  executed  an  admirable  retreat, 
traversing  more  than  one  hundred  leagues  of  country,  in  pre- 
sence of  a  formidable  enemy,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile  popu- 
lation, and  re-entered  Friburg,  without  having  suffered  his  line 
of  march  to  be  once  broken. 

Bonaparte,  however,  continued  to  triumph  over  all  obstacles, 
and  approached  Mantua.  He  blockaded  that  place,  and  en- 
tered the  territory  of  the  city  of  Venice,  which  was  ruined  by 
its  neutrality.  Old  Wurmser  raised  the  blockade  of  Mantua ; 
Bonaparte  triumphed  in  the  celebrated  battles  of  Castiglione 
and  Lonato ;  but  a  skilful  march  brought  Wurmser  with  thirty 
thousand  men  into  Mantua.  Bonaparte  turned  the  place,  block- 
aded it  anew,  and  gained  the  brilliant  victory  of  Arcole,  where 
he  performed  prodigies  of  valour,  and  exposed  himself  to  great 
dangers.     The  victory  of  Rivoli,  (1797,)  in  which  Joubert  had 


560  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

a  great  share,  followed  closely  upon  that  of  Arcole  ;  and  the 
pope,  who  had,  at  length,  taken  up  arms  at  the  instigation  of 
Austria,  was  compelled  to  give  in  his  submission.     Wurmser, 
pressed  by  famine  in   Mantua,  determined  upon  capitulating, 
and  all  Europe  rang  with  the  name  of  the  conqueror.     From 
that  moment,  Bonaparte  foresaw  the  great  destiny  that  awaited 
him,  and  neglected  no  means  of  fortune  or  fame.     In  the  in- 
tervals of  his  battles,  he  conversed  with  savants  and  poets,  ex- 
tolled the  republic,  and  in  all  things  gave  evidence  of  the  future 
ruler.     Affable  with  his  lieutenants  and  soldiers,  to  the  directors 
he  exhibited  a  haughty  reserve,  and  had,  at  the  same  time,  the 
art  to  make  his  presence  at  the  head  of  his  triumphant  army 
appear  to  them  indispensable.     He  availed  himself  of  the  popu- 
lar sympathies  against  governments  ;  and  transformed  Lombardy 
into  a  Cisalpine  republic,  of  which  Milan  became  the  capital. 
Numerous  reinforcements  having  reached  him  from  France,  he 
marched  again  upon  Vienna,  having  Prince  Charles  in  his  front. 
Massena  commanded  the  advanced  guard,  and  immortalized  him- 
self by  his  victories  at  Tagliamento  and  elsewhere.     Carinthia 
and  Styria  were  rapidly  subdued ;   terror  reigned  at  Vienna; 
and  Bonaparte  awaited  the  movements  of  the  other  armies  to 
penetrate  further.     Hoche  commanded  that  of  the  Sambre  and 
Meuse ;  and  Moreau  retained  that  of  the  Rhine.     Their  pro- 
gress was  slow ;  and  Joubert,  whom  Bonaparte  had  left  behind, 
with  three  divisions,  for  the  defence  of  the  Tyrol,  Avas  beaten 
by  Prince  Charles,  and  compelled  to  retreat.     Informed  of  this 
reverse,  Bonaparte  sent  to  Vienna  to  treat  for  peace;  and  an 
armistice  was  concluded  at  Leoben.     The  French  general  ceded 
to  Austria  Mantua  and  a  portion  of  Venetian  Lombardy  which 
he  had  conquered,  in  exchange  for  the  Cisalpine  republic  which 
he  had  founded.      The  directory  rejected  these  preliminaries; 
and  Bonaparte  suggested  Venice  to  Austria,  as  an  indemnity 
for  Mantua.     The  fate  of  that  republic  was,  accordingly,  de- 
cided.    The  French  emissaries,  everywhere,  excited  the  people 
against  the  senate  ;  but  at  Verona,  a  city  dependent  on  Venice, 
the  French  garrison  was  slaughtered  in  a  popular  revolt.    Bona- 
parte, who  sought  but  a  pretext  to  justify  an  act  of  spoliation, 
inveighed  furiously  against  the  Venetian  republic,  and  demanded 
vengeance  for  the  massacre  of  Verona.     Nothing  could  appease 
him  ;  and  General  Baraguay  d'Hilliers  marched  against  Venice. 


BONAPARTE'S   FIRST   CAMPAIGN   IN   ITALY. 


563 


Alarmed  at  his  approach,  the  senate  voted  a  constitution,  in  the 
hope  of  conciliating  France,  and  then  dissolved  itself.  The 
French  entered  the  city ;  and,  by  the  definitive  treaty  of  Campo 
Formio,  delivered  it  to  Austria,  in  exchange  for  the  Belgic  and 
Lombard  states.  Mantua  was  added  to  the  Cisalpine  republic  ; 
as  were  also  the  Bolognese  and  Romagna.  The  congress  of 
Radstadt  was  opened,  at  the  same  time,  to  treat  of  peace  with 
the  empire.  The  release  of  General  La  Fayette  and  his  three 
companions  in  misfortune  was  one  of  the  articles  of  the  glorious 
treaty  of  Campo  Formio.  All  the  combined  powers,  with  the 
exception  of  England,  had  laid  down  their  arms ;  and  France 
had  extended  her  system  in  Europe, — a  great  portion  of  her 
frontiers,  from  the  North  Sea  to  the  gulf  of  Genoa,  being  co- 
vered by  republican  states. 


564 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


SURRENDER    OF    CAIRO. 


BONAPARTE'S  EXPEDITION  TO  EGYPT. 


HIS  expedition  appears  to  have 
been  planned  by  the  French  Di- 
rectory for  the  purpose  of  em- 
ploying their  army,  and  acquiring 
glory  for  the  republic.  The  com- 
mand was  given  to  Napoleon  Bo- 
naparte, who  departed  from  Tou- 
lon with  a  fleet  of  four  hundred 
sail,  accompanied  by  a  body  of 
celebrated  sava?its,  and  a  portion 
of  the  army  of  Italy.  On  his 
way  he  took  possession  of  the 
island  of  Malta,  and  then  made 
sail  for  the  coast  of  Egypt.     (1798.) 

The  expedition  to  Egypt  was  a  brilliant  one.  The  Mame- 
lukes, a  body  of  cavalry  independent  of  the  Porte,  and  of  sove- 
reign authority  in  Egypt,  oppressed  that  unhappy  country  at 
the  period  of  Bonaparte's  landing,  and  alone  offered  a  gallant 
resistance  to  his  arms.  In  the  first  conflict,  which  took  place 
in  the  village  of  Chebreissa,  Bonaparte  was  the  conqueror  ;  that 
victory  was  closely  followed  by  the  brilliant  one  of  the  pyra- 


BONAPARTE'S  EXPEDITION  TO  EGYPT. 


5G7 


BATTLE    OF    THE    NILE. 


mids  ;  Cairo  opened  its  gates  on  the  ensuing  day  ;  and  Rosetta 
and  Damietta  surrendered.  Mourad  Bey,  the  chief  of  the 
Mamelukes,  retired  into  Upper  Egypt ;  and  there  Desaix, 
despatched  in  pursuit  of  him,  at  once  displayed  extraordinary 
talents,  and  won  blessings  for  his  justice  and  moderation.  About 
the  same  time  the  English  admiral,  Nelson,  gave  a  mortal  blow 
to  the  navy  of  France.  Admiral  Brueys  having  imprudently 
anchored  the  French  fleet  in  the  roads  of  Aboukir,  Nelson  at- 
tacked it  there,  and  completely  destroyed  it.  Bonaparte,  how- 
ever, took  great  pains  to  gain  the  affections  of  the  Egyptians, 
by  conforming  to  their  usages,  and  quoting  the  Koran  as  autho- 
rity for  his  decrees.  He  relieved,  at  the  same  time,  from  the 
hereditary  oppression  to  which  they  were  subjected,  the  Chris- 
tians called  Cophts,  considered  to  be  the  descendants  of  the 
ancient  Egyptians — and  founded  an  institute  at  Cairo.  Then, 
after  having  extinguished  a  formidable  revolt,  got  up  in  that 
city  against  his  army  by  the  Ottoman  Porte,  he  quitted  the 
scene  of  his  conquest,  for  the  purpose  of  undertaking  that  of 
Syria,  intending  from  thence  to  penetrate  into  India,  and  there 
strike  the  English  in  one  of  the  sources  of  their  power.  His 
army  traversed  sixty  leagues  of  burning  desert,  to  march  upon 
Gaza,  which  opened  its  gates.  Jaffa  and  Ka'iffa  were  carried, 
and  Saint- Job n-of- Acre  invested.     But  Bonaparte  wanted  siege- 


568 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


REVOLT    OF    CAIRO. 


artillery  ;  and  made  seventeen  furious  but  fruitless  assaults  upon 
this  place,  defended  by  the  joint  talents  of  the  French  engineer 
Phelippeaux,  and  the  English  commodore,  Sir  Sidney  Smith. 
His  army  -was  surrounded  by  the  Turks  ;  but  they  were  defeated 


SIEGE    OF    ACRE. 


at  Nazareth,  by  Junot :  and  Bonaparte,  assisted  by  Kle'ber  and 
Murat,  gained  the  celebrated  battle  of  Mount  Tabor.  After 
this  victory,  he  raised  the  siege  of  Acre,  and  returned  to  Cairo ; 
where  he  learned,  by  the  journals,  the  events  of  the  30th  Prai- 
rial,    and   the   disturbed  situation  of  the  republic.      Anarchy 


72 


2x2 


BONAPARTE'S   EXPEDITION   TO   EGYPT. 


571 


reigned  at  home  ;  a  second  forced  loan  had  excited  the  indigna- 
tion of  the  middling  classes  :  while  the  odious  law  of  hostages, 
which  rendered  the  relatives  of  emigrants  responsible  for  the 
outrages  committed  by  the  Chouans,  once  more  armed  the  roy- 
alists of  the  west  and  south  against  the  Directory.  Italy,  with 
the  exception  of  Genoa,  was  lost.  Joubert  had  been  killed  at 
the  bloody  battle  of  Novi,  gained  by  Suwarrow  ;  and  the  allies 
were  advancing  on  the  French  frontiers,  through  Holland  and 
Switzerland,  where  they  were  arrested  by  Brune  and  Massena. 
Informed  of  this  state  of  things  and  minds,  Bonaparte  deter- 
mined to  overthrow  the  directorial  government,  and  to  repair  at 
once  to  France,  whither  he  was  preceded  by  the  intelligence  of 
a  new  and  brilliant  victory.  Eighteen  thousand  Turks  having 
landed  in  the  bay  of  Aboukir,  Bonaparte,  supported  by  Murat, 
Lannes,  and  Bessi^res,  fell  upon  this  army  and  annihilated  it. 
Immediately  after  this  victory  he  set  out,  leaving  Kleber*  in 
command  of  the  army  of  Egypt ;  crossed  the  Mediterranean  in 
the  frigate  Le  Murion ;  escaped,  as  by  miracle,  from  the  Eng- 
lish fleet ;  and  landed  in  the  gulf  of  Frejus,  on  the  9th  of 
October,  1799 — a  few  days  after  the  celebrated  victories  of  Zu- 
rich and  Berghen,  gained,  the  first  over  the  Austrians,  by  Mas- 
sena, and  the  second  by  General  Brune,  over  the  duke  of  York. 

*  Kleber  was  subsequently  assassinated  in  Egypt.     His  death  took  place  on 
the  same  day,  June  14th,  1800,  as  that  of  Desaix,  at  Marengo. 


BATTLE    OF     THE     PYRAMIDS. 


572 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


REVOLUTION  OF  THE  18th  BRUMAIRE. 


IgONAPARTE  traversed  France 
as  a  conqueror,  and  was  received 
with  enthusiasm  by  the  masses  of 
the  moderate  party  in  Paris.  He 
now  altered  his  line  of  conduct. 
Hitherto  he  had  refrained  from 
^attaching  himself  to  any  system. 
Affecting  great  simplicity,  and 
occupying  modest  apartments  in 
the  Rue  Chantereine,  he  saw  him- 
self courted  by  the  heads  of  each 
party,  and  deceived  them  all.  Sieyes  dreaded  him ;  but  the  sup- 
port of  a  military  chief  was  essential  to  the  execution  of  his  de- 
signs. Bonaparte  was  in  a  condition  to  aid  him,  and  in  the  end 
Sieves  and  he  came  to  an  understanding.  Their  object  was  to 
overthrow  the  constitution  ;  and  with  this  view  the  generals, 
with  the  exception  of  Bernadotte,  were  gained  over — as  was  also 
the  garrison  of  Paris.  On  the  18th  Brumaire,  on  the  demand 
of  Regnicr,  one  of  the  conspirators,  the  council  of  the  anciens 
declared  that,  in  virtue  of  the  right  which  the  constitution  gave 
it,  it  transferred  the  legislative  body  to  Saint-Cloud,  under  the 
pretext  that  its  deliberations  would  there  be  more  free.  Bona- 
parte was  charged  with  the  execution  of  this  measure,  and  in- 
vested with  the  military  command  of  the  division  of  Paris.  He 
immediately  attacked  the  Directory  by  speeches  and  by  procla- 
mations. "What,"  said  he,  "have  you  done  with  that  France 
which  I  left  to  you  so  covered  with  glory  ?  I  left  with  you 
peace,  and  I  return  to  find  war ; — I  left  victories,  and  I  find 


REVOLUTION  OF   THE   18th   BRUMAIRE.  57?, 

but  disasters.  What  have  you  done  with  a  hundred  thousand 
Frenchmen  of  my  acquaintance — the  companions  of  my  fame  ? 
— they  are  dead."  In  this  manner,  while  accusing  his  adver- 
saries, he  contrived  to  insinuate  his  own  vast  importance.  On 
the  same  day,  Sieyes  and  Roger-Ducos  repaired  to  the  Tuileries 
and  laid  down  their  authority.  Their  three  colleagues  would 
have  resisted,  but  their  own  guard  refused  obedience  to  them. 
Barras,  losing  all  hope,  sent  in  his  resignation ;  Moulins  and 
Gohier  were  detained  prisoners  :  and  the  struggle  was  now 
to  commence  between  Bonaparte  and  the  council  of  the  cinq- 
cents. 

On  the  19th  Brumaire,  the  legislative  body  repaired  to  Saint- 
Cloud,  accompanied  by  an  imposing  armed  force.  Bonaparte 
presented  himself  first  before  the  council  of  the  anciens  ;  and 
being  summoned  to  take  the  constitutional  oath,  he  declared 
that  the  constitution  was  vicious,  and  the  Directory  incapable, 
and  appealed  to  his  companions  in  arms.  From  thence  he 
repaired  to  the  council  of  the  cinq-cents,  which  sat  in  the 
Orangery,  and  where  the  agitation  was  already  at  its  height. 
His  presence  raised  a' violent  storm: — "  Outlaw  him  !  Down 
with  the  dictator  !"  resounded  on  every  side.  Accustomed  to 
brave  an  enemy's  fire,  rather  than  the  menaces  of  a  deliberative 
assembly,  Bonaparte  grew  pale  and  agitated,  and  was  hurried 
away  by  the  grenadiers  who  formed  his  escort.  The  tumult 
continued  to  rage  in  the  chamber,  where  Lucien,  the  brother 
of  Napoleon,  presided,  and  attempted  his  defence.  On  all  sides 
the  outlawry  of  the  tyrant  was  loudly  called  for  ;  and  Lucien, 
being  required  to  put  the  question  to  the  vote,  quitted  the  chair, 
and  divested  himself  of  the  insignia  of  the  magistracy.  Bona- 
parte had  him  carried  from  the  hall ;  and  both  brothers,  mounting 
on  horseback,  harangued  the  soldiers — one  as  the  conqueror  of 
Italy  and  Egypt,  and  the  other  as  president  of  a  factious  assem- 
bly. The  enthusiasm  of  the  troops  broke  loudly  forth ;  and 
Bonaparte,  addressing  them,  exclaimed ; — "  Soldiers  !  can  I 
reckon  upon  you?" — "Yes!  yes!"  resounded  on  all  sides; 
and  Bonaparte  immediately  ordered  the  council  of  the  cinq- 
cents  to  be  expelled.  A  troop  of  grenadiers  entered  the  hall, 
under  the  command  of  Murat,  who  said : — "  In  the  name  of 
General  Bonaparte,  the  legislative  body  is  dissolved.  Let  all 
good  citizens  retire  ! — Grenadiers,  advance  !"      The  shouts  of 


574 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   niSTORY. 


indignation  which  arose  in  answer  were  drowned  in  the  roll  of 
the  drums :  the  grenadiers  advanced,  and  the  deputies  fled 
before  them,  escaping  by  the  windows,  amid  cries  of  Vive  la 
republique  !  Freedom  of  representation  was,  on  that  day,  at 
an  end  ;  and  of  the  French  republic  there  now  remained  nothing 
but  the  name. 


CAMPAIGNS   OF  AUSTERLITZ. 


577 


CAMPAIGN  OF  AUSTERLITZ. 


AD  Napoleon,  after  the  peace  of 
Amiens,  preferred  the  interests  of 
France  to  those  of  his  own  ambition, 
he  might  have  secured  to  the  nation 
the  fruits  of  twelve  years  of  internal 
and  external  struggle,  and  become  the 
moderator  of  Europe.  But  he  chose 
rather  to  be  its  sovereign,  and,  keep- 
ing his  eyes  steadily  fixed  on  the  great 
image  of  Charlemagne,  believed  that 
he  was  himself  summoned  to  the  same 
high  destinies.  His  firs.t  object  of 
ambition  'was  to  add  to  the  title  of 
emperor  of  the  French  that  of  king 
of  Italy;  and  the  representatives  of 
the  Cisalpine  republic  decided  that 
their  country  should  be  erected  into  a 
kingdom  in  his  favour.  Napoleon  set  out  instantly  for  Milan, 
where  he  put  on  the  iron  crown  of  the  Lombard  kings,  and  ap- 
pointed Eugene  de  Beauharnois,  his  step-son,  viceroy  of  Italy. 
The  establishment  of  this  kingdom,  the  annexation  to  the  em- 
pire of  the  territory  of  Genoa  and  that  of  Piedmont,  and  the 
efforts  of  the  English  cabinet,  once  more  directed  by  Mr.  Pitt, 
revolted  Austria,  and  united  that  country,  England,  and  Russia, 
(where  the  emperor  Alexander  had  succeeded  to  his  murdered 
father,)  in  a  third  coalition  against  France.  Napoleon  was  at 
this  time  at  Boulogne,  meditating  a  descent  upon  England,  and 
preparing  a  formidable  armament  for  that  purpose.  On  learn- 
ing that  two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  Austrians  were  ad- 
vancing in  three  bodies,  under  the  archdukes  Ferdinand,  John, 
and  Charles,  towards  the  Rhine  and  Adige,  and  that  two  Rus- 


78 


2  Y 


578 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


CAMP    AT    BOULOGNE. 


sian  armies  were  in  march  to  join  them,  he  suddenly  quitted 
Boulogne,  passed  the  Rhine  on  the  1st  of  October,  1805,  at 
the  head  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  men,  and  advanced 
into  Germany,  while  Massena  arrested  Prince  Charles  in  Italy. 
The  Danube  was  crossed  and  Bavaria  occupied,  and  Napoleon 
and  his  generals  vied  with  each  other  in  boldness  and  success — 
Murat  triumphing  at  Vertingen,  Dupont  at  Hasslach,  and  Ney 
at  Echlingen.  Bewildered  by  such  a  series  of  rapid  reverses, 
the  Austrian  general,  Mack,  suffered  himself  to  be  invested  in 
Ulm,  and  laid  down  his  arms,  with  thirty  thousand  men.  This 
capitulation  opened  the  gates  of  Vienna  to  the  French,  and 
Napoleon  made  his  entry  into  that  city  on  the  13th  of  Novem- 
ber. From  thence  he  marched  into  Moravia  to  meet  the  Rus- 
sians, and  encountered  them  with  the  remains  of  the  Austrian 
army  in  the  plains  of  Austerlitz.  The  battle  was  fought  on  the 
2d  of  December,  the  anniversary  of  his  coronation ;  and  there 
Napoleon  gained  the  most  brilliant  of  all  his  victories.  The 
battle  of  Austerlitz  put  an  end  to  the  third  coalition,  and  was 
followed,  on  the  26th  of  December,  by  the  peace  of  Presburg. 
By  this  treaty  the  house  of  Austria  ceded  the  provinces  of  Dal- 
matia  and  Albania  to  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  and  a  great  num- 
ber of  its  possessions  to  the  electorates  of  Bavaria  and  Wurtem- 
berg,  which  were  erected  into  kingdoms.  But  the  year  1805, 
so  fruitful  in  triumphs  for  France  on  the  continent,  beheld  like- 


CAMPAIGN   OF   ATJSTERLITZ. 


581 


wise  the  complete  ruin  of  her  navy.  The  combined  fleets  of 
France  and  Spain,  under  the  command  of  Admiral  Villeneuve, 
beaten  on  the  22d  of  July  at  Cape  Finisterre,  lost  on  the  21st 
of  October  the  celebrated  battle  of  Trafalgar.  Thirty-two 
French  and  Spanish  ships  were  beaten  by  twenty-eight  English 
sail,  under  the  command  of  Nelson,  and  thirteen  ships  alone  of 
the  combined  fleet  escaped.  This  great  victory,  which  cost  the 
English  admiral  his  life,  secured  to  England  the  sovereignty  of 
the  seas,  and  it  was  no  longer  on  that  element  that  Napoleon 
attempted  to  disturb  her  power. 


DEATH    OF    NELSON. 


2t2 


5*2 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


NAPOLEON. 


INVASION  OF  SPAIN. 


WEDEN  was  the  only  power  in  the  north 
which,  after  the  treaty  of  Tilsit,  had  re- 
mained in  arms.  Her  feeble  monarch,  Gus- 
tavus  IV.,  declared  himself  the  avenger  of 
Europe  against  Napoleon ;  but,  abandoned 
by  England  and  plundered  by  his  former  ally, 
Russia,  he  saw  Stralsund  and  the  Isle  of  Ru- 
gen  carried  off  before  his  eyes,  lost  Pome- 
rania,  and  by  his  foolish  pride  alienated  from  himself  the  affec- 
tions of  his  subjects.  The  entire  shores  of  the  Baltic  submitted 
to  the  French  yoke.  England  had,  some  months  previously, 
vainly  attempted  to  subdue  the  Ottoman  Porte,  at  that  time  at 


INVASION   OF   SPAIN.  583 

war  with  Russia  and  an  ally  of  France.  An  English  fleet,  after 
having  with  this  design  passed  the  Dardanelles,  had  been  beaten 
back  by  formidable  batteries,  hastily  thrown  up  by  the  French 
ambassador,  Sebastiani.  There  remained  but  one  single  state 
which  acknowledged  the  direct  influence  of  Great  Britain. 
That  state  was  Portugal,  and  Napoleon,  who,  by  the  decree  of 
the  continental  blockade,  had  arrogated  to  himself  the  right  of 
disposing,  at  his  own  good  pleasure,  of  the  destinies  of  nations, 
signed  at  Fontainebleau,  on  the  27th  of  September,  1807,  an 
iniquitous  treaty  with  Spain,  by  which  Portugal,  in  chastisement 
of  her  alliance  with  England,  was  to  be  almost  entirely  shared 
between  the  king  of  Etruria  and  Godoy,  prince  of  peace,  who 
governed  the  Spanish  monarchy.  This  treaty  acknowledged 
the  king  of  Spain,  Charles  IV.,  as  suzerain  of  the  two  states 
formed  by  the  dismemberment  of  Portugal.  A  proclamation 
announced,  on  the  13th  of  December,  1807,  that  the  house  of 
Braganza  had  ceased  to  reign.  Twenty-eight  thousand  French, 
under  the  command  of  Junot,  were  charged  with  the  execution 
of  this  sentence,  and,  before  their  arrival  at  Lisbon,  the  prince- 
regent  of  Portugal  embarked  for  Brazil,  abandoning  his  capital 
and  his  fleet  to  the  invading  army. 

This  rapid  success,  and  the  scandalous  dissensions  of  the 
royal  family  of  Spain,  inflamed  the  ambition  of  Napoleon,  and 
accustomed  him  to  look  upon  the  peninsula,  in  part  or  in  whole, 
as  his  conquest.  The  feeble  Charles  IV.,  entirely  governed  by 
the  queen's  favourite,  Godoy,  had  rendered  himself  contempti- 
ble in  the  eyes  of  all  his  subjects,  of  whom  Ferdinand,  the 
prince  of  Asturias,  became  the  idol,  as  the  declared  enemy  of 
the  obnoxious  favourite.  Napoleon,  at  the  summit  of  his  for- 
tune, was  an  object  of  admiration  and  reverence  to  Charles  IV. 
and  his  son.  Already  he  had  been  chosen  as  the  arbiter  of 
their  differences,  and  the  prince  of  Asturias  had  solicited  the 
honour  of  an  alliance  with  his  family.  It  was  in  the  emperor's 
power,  by  pacific  measures,  to  have  exercised  a  sovereign  influ- 
ence over  Spain,  and  profited,  advantageously  for  his  own  sys- 
tem, by  the  hatred  with  which  a  number  of  maritime  disasters 
had  inspired  the  Spaniards  against  England.  This,  however, 
was  not  sufficient  for  his  ambition,  and,  while  the  eyes  of  all 
the  royal  family  of  Spain  were  turned  towards  him  in  hope,  a 
French  army  passed  the  Pyrenees,  under  Murat,  the  grand- 


584  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 

duke  of  Berg,  and  suddenly  the  news  reached  Madrid  that  the 
strongholds  of  Barcelona,  Figueiras,  Pampeluna,  and  Saint 
Sebastian  were  militarily  occupied  by  the  French,  (a.  d.  1808.) 
Soon  afterwards,  Napoleon,  in  contempt  of  the  treaty  of  Fon- 
tainebleau,  openly  demanded  the  annexation  to  his.  empire  of 
the  provinces  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Ebro.  Charles  IV.  and 
the  queen  were  smitten  with  dismay,  and  Godoy  counselled  them 
to  imitate  the  prince-regent  of  Portugal,  and  embark  for  their 
dominions  in  America.  His  advice  was  adopted,  and  prepara- 
tions were  making  for  their  departure  ;  but  Ferdinand  opposed 
the  measure,  and,  summoning  the  population  of  Aranjuez  to 
arms,  denounced  to  them,  as  new  treacheries,  the  dastardly 
counsels  of  Godoy.  An  insurrection  was  the  consequence,  in 
which  the  troops  took  part,  and  which  was  directed  by  Ferdi- 
nand. He  caused  Godoy  to  be  arrested,  kept  his  father  pri- 
soner, compelled  him  to  abdicate,  and  then  made  a  triumphal 
entry  into  Madrid,  in  the  character  of  king  of  the  two 
Spains.  On  the  following  day,  however,  Murat,  without  await- 
ing the  emperor's  orders,  entered  that  capital  with  his  army. 
Charles  IV.  protested  against  his  compulsory  abdication,  and 
Murat  refused  to  acknowledge  the  royalty  of  Ferdinand. 
"Napoleon,  alone,"  he  said,  "must  decide  between  the  father 
and  son."  The  emperor  came  to  Bayonne,  whither  he  invited 
King  Charles  and  his  son  to  repair,  that  he  might  pronounce 
as  supreme  arbiter  of  their  differences  and  destinies.  They 
obeyed  the  summons,  and  Napoleon,  master  of  their  persons, 
decided  for  the  father,  and  compelled  him  to  abdicate  in  his 
own  favour.  Charles  IV.  had  the  chateau  of  Compiegne  as- 
signed for  his  habitation,  and  his  son  was  held  captive  in  that 
of  Valentjay.  Thus  was  consummated  an  odious  act  of  usurpa- 
tion, whose  results  became  fatal  to  its  author,  and  gave  the  first 
blow  to  his  fortune  by  shaking  the  stability  of  his  throne. 
Murat,  however,  retained  possession  of  Madrid,  and,  swayed  by 
French  influence,  the  council  of  Castile  was  induced  to  demand, 
as  king  of  Spain,  Napoleon's  eldest  brother,  Joseph. 

An  assembly  of  notables  was  immediately  convened  at  Bay- 
onne, at  which  the  emperor  organized  a  junta  charged  with  the 
provisional  government.  Joseph  yielded  up  the  crown  of  Na- 
ples to  Joachim  Murat,  instantly  quitted  that  capital,  and 
arrived  at  Bayonne  on  the  7th  of  June,  where  he  was  acknow- 


INVASION   OF   SPAIN. 


585 


JOSEPH     BONAPARTE. 


ledged  king  of  Spain  by  the  duke  de  l'lnfantado,  and  a  depu- 
tation of  the  grandees  and  different  bodies  of  the  state.  The 
assembly  of  Bayonne  voted  a  constitution,  to  which  Joseph 
swore,  and  on  the  9th  of  July  he  was  in  march  for  Spain.  But 
already  the  Spaniards,  indignant  and  furious  at  the  usurpation, 
had  flown  to  arms.  The  clergy  set  the  example  of  revolt,  de- 
claring that  heaven  was  interested  in  the  cause  of  Ferdinand, 
and  denouncing  Napoleon  as  antichrist.  The  army  had  risen 
in  mass,  and  a  provisional  junta  of  government,  assembled  at 
Seville,  disputed  and  annulled  the  acts  of  the  junta  of  Bayonne. 
On  Saint  Ferdinand's  day,  a  new  "  Sicilian  Vespers"  sounded 
against  the  French  throughout  the  whole  of  Spain.  Their 
squadron  was  seized  at  Cadiz,  and  the  crews  slaughtered,  and 
the  Spaniards  signalized  their  vengeance,  in  a  variety  of  places, 
by  massacres  and  crime.  They  declared  war  to  the  death 
against  the  French,  and  the  Portuguese  followed  their  example. 
However,  Bessieres  was  victorious  at  Medina  de  Rio  Secco,  and 
his  success  opened  the  gates  of  Madrid  to  King  Joseph,  who 
7*1 


586 


INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


made  his  entry  into  that  capital  on  the  20th  of  July.  Almost 
immediately  afterwards,  however,  General  Dupont  shamefully 
capitulated  at  Baylen,  and  laid  down  his  arms  with  twenty- 
six  thousand  soldiers.  This  terrible  check  gave  a  shock  to  the 
French  authority  in  the  peninsula,  and  redoubled  the  daring  of 
the  Spaniards.  Joseph  was  obliged  to  quit  Madrid  one  week 
after  his  solemn  entry.  Portugal  revolted,  and  an  English 
army  landed  there  under  the  command  of  Sir  Arthur  "Wellesley, 
afterwards  the  duke  of  Wellington.  Junot,  with  only  ten 
thousand  men,  risked  the  battle  of  Vimiera  against  twenty-six 
thousand  English  and  Portuguese.  He  was  beaten,  and  shortly 
afterwards  signed  the  convention  of  Cintra,  which  at  least  left 
him  at  liberty  to  return  to  France  with  honour.  Portugal  was 
evacuated,  and  already  Joseph  possessed  no  more  than  Barce- 
lona, Navarre,  and  Biscay,  in  all  Spain.  The  English,  so  re- 
cently enemies  to  the  Spaniards,  were  received  by  them  with 
open  arms.  The  star  of  Napoleon  began  to  wane,  and  the 
prestige  of  the  invincibility  of  the  French  arms,  under  his 
reign,  was  at  length  destroyed. 


MARSHAL    LANNES. 


THE  WAR  IN  SPAIN  AND  GERMANY.  589 


THE   WAR  IN  SPAIN  AND  GERMANY. 

ETERMINED  to  subdue  Spain,  Napoleon 
strengthened  his  alliance  with  Alexander,  by 
an  interview,  at  Erfurt,  in  September  and 
October,  1808;  and,  secure  of  the  pacific 
intentions  of  that  emperor,  he  recalled  his 
legions  from  the  banks  of  the  Niemen,  the 
Spree,  the  Elbe,  and  the  Danube,  and  directed  them  against 
Spain,  where  his  presence  at  the  head  of  his  veterans  soon 
changed  the  aspect  of  things.  The  battles  of  Burgos,  Espinosa, 
and  Tudela,  in  which  his  eagles  were  triumphant,  once  more 
opened  to  Joseph  the  gates  of  Madrid.  Arrived  in  that  capital, 
Napoleon  promised  franchises  and  the  abolition  of  feudalism  to 
the  Spaniards ;  but  he  spoke  to  a  people  who  scarcely  under- 
stood him,  who  had  no  ears  but  for  their  priests,  and  whose  he- 
roism displayed  itself  only  in  their  impatience  of  a  foreign 
yoke.  Their  answers  to  the  liberal  promises  of  the  usurper 
were  cries  of  execration  and  rage.  They  organized  themselves 
into  guerilla  bands,  who  converted  Spain  into  a  second  Vendue 
for  the  troops  of  France.  Everywhere  the  population  rose,  and 
flew  to  arms ;  and  the  vow  of  national  independence  became  a 
bond  to  unite  the  constitutionalists  with  the  partisans  of  the 
clergy,  against  their  common  enemy,  France.  The  English 
were  approaching,  and  Napoleon  marched  to  meet  them.  But 
his  course  was  suddenly  arrested  by  the  intelligence  that  Aus- 
tria, emboldened  by  his  absence  and  the  withdrawal  of  his  vete- 
ran troops,  had  formed  a  fifth  coalition  with  England  and  the 
holy  see,  (1809 ;)  and  that  the  archduke  Charles  was  again  in 
arms,  and  with  difficulty  held  in  check  by  Davoust,  whose  force 
was  inferior.  Napoleon  instantly  quitted  Spain,  flew  to  the 
Rhine,  triumphed  at  Eckmuhl  and  at  Ratisbonne ;  and  the 
French  army  entered  a  second  time,  as  victors,  into  the  capital 
of  Austria.     On  the  22d  of  May,  was  fought,  on  some  islands 

2  Z 


590 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 


DEATH    OF    MARSHAL    LANNES. 


in  the  Danube,  the  bloody  and  indecisive  battle  of  Essling  ; 
in  which  the  emperor  lost  thousands  of  brave  men,  and  his 
friend  Lannes,  duke  of  Montebello.  The  corps  of  Marmont 
and  Eugene  rejoined  the  grand  army,  and  repaired  its  losses ; 
and,  after  the  victory  of  Raab,  the  terrible  battle  of  Wagram, 
in  which  no  less  than  twelve  hundred  pieces  of  cannon  swept 
the  ranks  of  the  two  armies,  terminated  the  war  in  favour  of 
France.  The  vanquished  Francis  I.  signed,  on  the  14th  of  Oc- 
tober, the  peace  of  Vienna,  whereby  he  ceded  several  provinces, 
and  gave  in  his  adherence  to  the  continental  system.  Pope 
Pius  VII.,  who,  groaning  under  the  partition  of  his  territories, 
had  given  his  countenance  to  this  coalition,  and  threatened  the 
emperor  with  the  thunders  of  the  Vatican,  was  dethroned  from 
his  temporal  sovereignty,  brutally  torn  from  the  pontifical 
palace,  and  consigned  to  a  four  years'  captivity,  first  at  Savone, 
and  afterwards  at  Fontainebleau;  and  the  ancient  metropolis  of 
the  world  was  degraded  into  the  capital  of  a  French  department. 
A  hundred  thousand  English  had,  during  this  campaign,  at- 
tempted a  descent  upon  Holland  ;  Flushing  had  fallen  into  their 
power,  and  Antwerp  was  menaced  by  them.  But  the  strong 
defensive  condition  of  this  place,  and  a  levy  of  national  guards 
in  the  northern  departments,  rendered  their  efforts  unavailing. 
Their  ranks  were  thinned  by  sickness  in  the  marshes  of  Zealand ; 
and  they  evacuated  Flushing,  after  having  sustained  considerable 


W®L 


THE    EMPRESS    JOSEPHINE. 


THE   WAR   IN   FRANCE   AND   GERMANY.  593 

losses.  The  resistance  to  Napoleon's  arms  in  the  peninsula  was, 
however,  continued,  notwithstanding  numerous  victories  gained 
by  his  generals.  Sebastiani  had  triumphed  at  Ciudad-Real, 
Victor  at  Medelin,  and  Soult  at  Oporto,  where  twenty  thousand 
Portuguese  were  left  upon  the  field  of  battle.  But  the  lofty 
example  of  Palafox,  the  defender  of  Saragossa,  and  the  heroic 
conduct  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  town,  who  buried  themselves 
beneath  its  ruins  rather  than  submit  to  the  conqueror,  excited 
the  enthusiasm  and  redoubled  the  energies  of  the  Spaniards. 
The  English,  hailed  by  them  as  deliverers,  successfully  second- 
ed their  efforts.  On  the  28th  of  July,  Joseph  fought  against 
Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  the  indecisive  battle  of  Talavera,  which 
however,  the  English  celebrated  as  a  victory.  In  vain  did  Se- 
bastiani triumph  on  the  21st  of  August,  at  Almonacid ;  and 
Mortier,  with  twenty-five  thousand  men,  overthrow  fifty  thou- 
sand at  Ocana,  on  the  19th  of  November ;  in  vain  was  Anda- 
lusia open  to  the  French ;  Spain  was  still  unsubdued.  Soult  in 
the  south,  and  Suchet  in  the  north,  commenced  the  campaign 
of  1810.  Grenada,  Malaga,  and  Seville  were  occupied  by  the 
French ;  and  the  provisional  junta  of  Seville  removed  to  Cadiz, 
which  was  unsuccessfully  besieged  by  Marshal  Victor.  It  was 
at  this  period  that  South  America  threw  off  the  Spanish  yoke, 
and  proclaimed  the  federal  government  of  Venezuela.  Massena, 
prince  of  Essling,  at  the  same  time,  sustained  the  war  in  Por- 
tugal against  Wellington,  whose  army  was  greatly  superior  to 
that  of  the  French  :  but  the  success  of  the  campaign  was  com- 
promised by  a  serious  misunderstanding  which  arose  betwixt  him 
and  Marshal  Ney.  He  marched  upon  the  capital,  was  beaten 
at  Busaco,  and  his  progress  finally  arrested  in  the  month  of  De- 
cember, by  Wellington,  before  the  formidable  lines  of  Torres 
Vedras,  which  covered  Lisbon. 

While  the  peninsula  was  thus  devouring  the  flower  of  the 
French  armies,  Napoleon  attained  the  highest  point  of  his  mar- 
vellous destinies.  Induced  alike  by  his  anxiety  for  an  heir,  and 
his  desire  to  ally  himself  with  the  old  European  dynasties,  he 
divorced  his  first  wife,  Josephine  de  Beauharnois,  and  on  the 
30th  of  March,  1810,  married  Maria-Louisa,  archduchess  of 
Austria,  and  daughter  of  the  emperor  Francis. 
75  2  z  2 


594 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


NAPOLEON'S   RUSSIAN   CAMPAIGN. 


m 


0  WARDS  the  close  of  1811,  a  com- 
mercial ukase  re-opened  the  ports 
of  Russia  to  the  colonial  produce 
of  England,  and  the  armies  of  Alex- 
ander approached  the  Niemen.  At 
the  same  time,  Sweden  renounced 
her  adhesion  to  the  continental  sys- 
tem ;  and  shortly  afterwards,  a  sixth 
confederation  against  France  was 
formed  between  England,  Russia, 
Sweden,  Spain,  and  Portugal, — 
France  being  voluntarily  seconded  by  Italy  and  Poland,  and 
constrainedly  so,  by  Germany,  Prussia,  and  Austria.  The  sultan 
Mahmoud,  the  successor  of  Selim,  who  had  been  slain  by  the 
janissaries,  entered,  at  this  period,  into  treaty  with  Russia,  and 
signed  the  peace  of  Bucharest.  Napoleon  repaired  to  Dresden  ; 
where  his  court  was  composed  of  most  of  the  crowned  heads  and 
princes  in  Europe ;  and  there  he  made  final  but  fruitless  efforts 
to  re-attach  Alexander  to  his  system.  That  which  he  failed  in 
obtaining  by  means  of  persuasion,  he  determined  to  secure  by 


NAPOLEON'S   RUSSIAN   CAMPAIGN.  595 

force  of  arms ;  and  war  was  declared  against  Russia,  on  the  22d 
of  June,  1812. 

Napoleon  took  the  field,  at  the  head  of  four  hundred  thousand 
soldiers,  passed  the  Niemen,  on  the  24th  of  June,  with  half  his 
forces,  and  halted  at  Wilna  seventeen  days.  That  delay  was 
fatal  to  his  arms.  The  diet  of  Warsaw,  during  his  sojourn  in 
Poland,  proclaimed  the  re-establishment  of  the  kingdom,  and 
the  liberation  of  the  entire  nation.  A  deputation  demanded  of 
the  emperor  that  he  should  recognise  the  existence  of  Poland. 
Napoleon  hesitated  and  gave  finally  an  evasive  answer.  After 
a  glorious  action,  he  arrived  at  Witepsk,  the  hostile  army,  under 
Barclay  de  Tolly,  retiring  before  him.  A  bloody  battle  was 
fought  before  Smolensko,  which  was  abandoned  to  the  flames. 
The  Russians  fell  back,  and  the  French  continued  to  advance. 
Valoutina  witnessed  a  murderous  conflict ;  but  the  disobedience 
of  one  of  Napoleon's  generals  saved  the  army  of  the  enemy  from 
total  destruction.  Still,  however,  that  army  retreated,  followed 
by  the  emperor.  At  length,  on  the  5th  of  September,  the  grand 
army  arrived  on  the  plains  of  Borodino,  a  few  miles  from  Moscow, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Moskowa,  and  found  itself  in  presence  of  the 
whole  Russian  army,  commanded  by  the  veteran  Kutusoff.  A 
general  engagement  was  determined  on  for  the  following  day ;  and 
on  that  memorable  morning,  Napoleon,  issuing  from  his  tent  thus 
addressed  his  officers : — "  How  bright,  to-day,  is  the  sun  ! — it  is 
the  sun  of  Austerlitz  !"  Then,  in  a  proclamation  to  his  soldiers 
he  said, — "The  battle  is  now  at  hand  for  which  you  have  so 
longed :  acquit  yourselves  as  you  did  at  Austerlitz,  at  Friedland, 
at  Witepsk,  at  Smolensko ;  and  let  posterity  the  most  remote 
refer  with  pride  to  your  deeds  of  this  day.  Let  men  say 
of  each  of  you,  when  they  shall  behold  you, — '  He  was  at  that 
great  battle  on  the  plains  of  Moscow !'  "  The  fight  began  almost 
immediately  afterwards,  and  was  a  terrible  one.  Ney,  Murat, 
Eugene,  Davoust,  GeVard,  and  Poniatowski  performed  prodigies 
of  valour.  Auguste  Caulaincourt  was  mortally  wounded,  while 
carrying,  in  a  gallop,  a  formidable  redoubt,  at  the  head  of  his 
cuirassiers.  The  Russians  at  length  gave  way,  after  a  most 
sanguinary  struggle.  Napoleon  restrained  his  guards,  and  suf- 
fered the  enemy,  whom  he  might  have  annihilated,  to  escape. 
Twenty-two  thousand  French  and  fifty  thousand  Russians  were 
killed  or  wounded  on  that  murderous  day.     A  great  number  of 


596 


INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 


the  generals  of  France  was  slain,  but  the  victory  was  hers,  and 
Marshal  Ney  was  proclaimed  prince  of  the  Moskowa,  on  the 
field  of  battle.  A  second  engagement  took  place  at  Mojaisk, 
half  a  league  from  Moscow,  where  the  Russians  were  again 
beaten ;  and  their  army  entered  into  the  ancient  capital  of  their 
empire  only  to  abandon  it.  Thither  the  French  penetrated, 
after  them:  but  were  astonished  at  the  solitude  which  reigned 
within  its  walls.  The  streets  were  deserts,  and  the  inhabitants 
had  fled.  Napoleon  entered,  unresisted,  into  the  ancient  citadel 
of  the  Kremlin.  Moscow  he  looked  upon  as  an  asylum,  after 
the  sufferings  and  fatigues  of  his  army.  He  found  immense  re- 
sources within  the  city,  and  here,  therefore,  he  resolved  to  establish 
his  winter  quarters, — and  looked  proudly  around  on  his  conquest. 
But  during  the  night  a  frightful  conflagration  broke  out.  Ros- 
topchin,  the  governor  of  the  city,  had  determined,  in  evacuating 
it,  on  an  immense  sacrifice,  for  the  salvation  of  his  country. 
Russia  was  lost,  if  the  French  should  find  a  shelter  in  Moscow. 
At  an  appointed  signal,  and  by  order  of  Rostopchin,  a  band  of 
convicts  spread  themselves  throughout  the  city,  carrying  flame  in 
their  hands,  and  set  fire  to  it  in  a  thousand  parts.  Moscow 
crumbled  away  beneath  the  conflagration,  and  little  more  of  her 
was  left,  in  a  few  hours,  than  a  heap  of  cinders  and  ruins. 

The  winter  was  approaching,  and  the  French  had  no  longer 
an  asylum  to  look  forward  to  against  its  rigours.     Napoleon 


NAPOLEON'S   RUSSIAN   CAMPAIGN. 


597 


NAPOLEON    LEAVING    RUSSIA. 


still  flattered  himself  with  the  hope  of  peace,  and  Alexander 
prolonged  the  negotiations  purposely,  with  the  view  of  detaining 
his  enemy  amid  the  ruins  of  Moscow.  At  length,  however,  the 
negotiations  were  broken  up,  and  the  order  was  issued  for  retreat. 
The  emperor  quitted  the  city  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  thousand 
fighting  men,  after  forty  days  of  fruitless  expectation.  "  Your 
day  of  warfare  is  ended,"  said  old  Kutusoff,  "  and  ours  is  about 
to  begin."  The  winter  set  in  suddenly,  with  more  than  its 
usual  rigour,  even  in  Russia.  The  French  troops,  paralysed  by 
the  cold,  were  pursued  and  harassed  in  their  retreat  by  innume- 
rable enemies,  and  the  roads  were  covered  with  their  frozen 
corpses.  Still,  however,  the  army  marched  in  tolerable  order  as 
far  as  the  Beresina,  which  it  had  to  cross  in  the  presence  of  three 
Russian  armies.  The  river  was,  as  yet,  unfrozen  over,  though 
covered  with  floating  ice.  It  was  necessary  to  construct  rafts, 
under  the  fire  of  the  enemy,  and  at  the  same  time  make  head 
against  them  unceasingly.  At  this  place  were  again  achieved 
prodigies  of  heroism  ;  but  the  rafts  were  encumbered  by  multi- 
tudes of  stragglers  and  disarmed  soldiers,  and,  yielding  to  the 
pressure,  thousands  of  men  were  engulfed  in  the  waters  of  the 
Beresina.  At  length,  after  incredible  efforts,  this  formidable 
barrier  was  cleared ;  but  the  moral  as  well  as  physical  strength 
of  the  soldiers  was  gone  ;  the  cold  set  in  with  renewed  rigour  ; 
and  the  retreat  was,  thenceforth,  one  vast  and  frightful  rout. 


598 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


COMMODORE    TRUXTUN. 


CAPTURE   OF   THE   INSURGENTE  AND 
VENGEANCE. 


HE  quasi  war,  as  it  is 
called,  between  this 
country  and  France, 
under  the  Directory, 
having  commenced,  a 
squadron  under  the 
command  of  Commo- 
dore Truxtun  was  or- 
dered to  protect  the 
commerce  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  in  the  West 
Indies.  It  was  while 
on  this  service  that  his 
brightest  laurels  were 

won,  by  the  capture  of  two  French  frigates,  each  of  superior 

force  to  his  own  ship. 

On  the  9th  of  February,  the  Constellation  being  alone  cruising 

on  her  prescribed  ground,  the  island  of  Nevis  bearing  W.  S.  W., 


CAPTURE   OF  THE  INSURG*ENTE  AND  VENGEANCE.     590 


CAPTURE     OF     THE     INSURGENTS. 


and  distant  five  leagues,  made  a  large  ship  on  the  southern 
board.  The  stranger,  being  approached  by  the  Constellation, 
showed  the  American  colours,  when  the  private  signals  were 
shown.  The  chase  being  unable  to  answer,  further  disguise  was 
abandoned,  and,  hoisting  the  French  ensign,  he  fired  a  gun  to 
windward,  by  way  of  challenge,  and  gallantly  awaited  the  con- 
test. This  being  the  first  time  since  the  revolutionary  war  that 
an  American  ship  had  encountered  an  enemy  in  any  manner 
that  promised  a  contest,  the  officers  and  men  were  eager  for 
the  engagement ;  and  the  enemy  were  not  inclined  to  avoid  it. 
The  ships  neared,  until  the  Constellation,  after  having  been 
thrice  hailed,  opened  a  fire  upon  her  antagonist.  A  fierce  can- 
nonade ensued,  while  the  American  was  drawing  ahead.  She 
suffered  much  in  her'  sails  and  rigging,  and  the  foretopmast  was 
nearly  cut  off  by  a  shot.  This  was,  in  some  degree,  remedied 
by  Mr.  David  Porter,  a  midshipman,  who,  being  unable  to  com- 
municate the  circumstance  to  others,  himself  cut  the  stoppers 
and  lowered  the  yard,  and  thus  prevented  the  fall  of  the  mast 
with  its  rigging.  In  the  mean  time,  their  superior  gunnery 
gave  the  action  a  turn  in  favour  of  the  Americans,  who  were  at 
last  enabled  to  decide  the  contest  by  two  or  three  raking  broad- 
sides, after  a  combat  of  an  hour,  when  the  American  wore 


600  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

round,  and  would  again  have  raked  her,  with  all  their  guns,  had 
she  not  prudently  struck. 

The  prize  was  the  French  frigate  l'lnsurgente,  one  of  the 
fastest  vessels  in  the  world.  She  was  greatly  damaged,  and  had 
lost  in  all  seventy  men.  The  Constellation  also  was  much  dam- 
aged in  her  rigging,  but  lost  only  three  men,  wounded,  one  of 
whom,  Mr.  James  McDonough,  had  his  foot  shot  off. 

The  Insurgente  carried  forty  guns,  and  four  hundred  and  nine 
men.  The  American  vessel  carried  thirty-eight  guns,  and  three 
hundred  and  nine  men. 

It  was  half-past  three  in  the  afternoon  when  the  Insurgente 
struck,  and  Mr.  Rodgers,  the  first  lieutenant  of  the  Constellation, 
was  sent,  together  with  Mr.  Porter  and  eleven  men,  to  take 
possession  and  have  the  prisoners  removed ;  but,  ere  this  could 
be  effected,  the  darkness  and  a  rise  of  wind  separated  the  ships. 

The  situation  of  Rodgers,  at  this  period,  was  unpleasant  in 
the  extreme.  No  handcuffs  were  to  be  found,  and  the  prisoners 
seemed  disposed  to  rebel.  Fortunately,  Rodgers  was  well  cal- 
culated to  act  with  decision  in  such  circumstances,  and  Porter 
and  the  men  equally  prompt  in  executing  his  orders.  The  pri- 
soners were  sent  into  the  lower  hold,  and  a  sentinel  stationed  at 
each  hatchway,  with  orders  to  shoot  any  one  who  should  attempt 
to  come  upon  deck  without  orders.  Thus  he  was  obliged  to 
spend  three  days,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  arrived  at  St. 
Kitts,  where  the  Constellation  had  already  arrived. 

On  the  1st  of  February,  1800,  the  Constellation  came  in  sight 
of  a  strange  sail,  off  the  coast  of  Guadaloupe.  Thinking  her  to 
be  an  English  merchantman,  Truxtun  hoisted  the  English  flag, 
in  order  to  be  hailed  by  her.  This  was  disregarded,  and  sail 
made  in  pursuit,  when  the  stranger  was  discovered  to  be  a  French 
man-of-war.  The  English  flag  was  lowered,  and  all  made  ready 
for  a  desperate  struggle.  The  enemy's  ship  was  ascertained  to 
carry  fifty-two  guns ;  but  the  vessel  being  very  deep,  Truxtun 
was  not  discouraged  by  her  superior  force,  but  still  gave  chase. 
The  wind  being  light  during  the  afternoon,  it  was  not  until 
evening,  at  eight  o'clock,  that  they  came  within  speaking  dis- 
tance. The  ship  then  opened  a  fire  upon  them,  which  was  re- 
turned, and  kept  up  till  near  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when 
the  French  ship  made  all  sail  to  escape.  Truxtun  ordered  to 
give  chase  ;  but  was  informed  that  the  mainmast  had  been  nearly 


.;  a 


CAPTURE   OF   THE   INSURGENTE   AND  VENGEANCE.        603 

shot  away,  and,  as  it  was  found  impossible  to  remedy  it,  the 
chase  was  given  up. 

Soon  after  the  ships  separated,  the  mast  fell,  and  several  men 
were  lost  by  the  accident ;  among  them  Mr.  Jarvis,  a  midship- 
man. 

Mr.  Truxtun,  as  no  port  to  windward  could  be  reached,  bore 
up  for  Jamaica,  where  he  arrived  in  safety.  His  antagonist,  it 
was  ascertained  afterwards,  arrived  at  Cura§oa,  in  a  very  disa- 
bled condition,  and  reported  a  loss  of  fifty  killed,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  wounded.  The  loss  of  the  Constellation  was  four- 
teen killed,  and  twenty-three  wounded,  of  whom  eleven  died. 

The  Constellation,  at  this  time,  carried  twenty  eighteens  on 
her  main-deck,  and  the  quarter-deck  was  supplied  with  ten  twenty- 
four  pound  carronades.  She  numbered  three  hundred  and  ten 
men.  The  Vengeance,  the  French  vessel,  carried  twenty-eight 
eighteens,  sixteen  twelves,  and  eight  forty-two  pound  carronades. 
There  are  various  statements  of  her  crew,  all  between  four  hun- 
dred and  five  hundred  men. 

It  is  certain  that,  but  for  the  loss  of  her  mast,  the  Constel- 
lation would  have  brought  the  prize  into  port ;  indeed,  it  is  re- 
ported, that  the  Vengeance  struck  three  times,  but  the  Ameri- 
cans continuing  their  fire,  the  colours  were  hoisted  again. 

Commodore  Truxtun  was  rewarded  for  this  exploit  by  a  pro- 
motion to  the  command  of  the  President,  forty-four  guns ;  and 
was  also  presented  by  Congress  with  a  gold  medal. 

The  Constellation  was  now  given  to  Captain  Murray  ;  and 
Commodore  Truxtun,  hoisting  his  broad  pennant  in  the  Presi- 
dent, made  another  cruise  on  the  Guadaloupe  station,  where  he 
rendered  eminent  service  in  the  protection  of  the  American 
commerce  against  French  cruisers,  until  the  close  of  the  war. 


I 


604 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


DECATUR. 


THE  TRIPOLITAN  WAR. 


N  consequence  of  insolent  demands  for  tribute 
made  on  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
and  depredations  on  the  American  commerce,  a 
war  broke  out,  in  1801,  between  this  country  and 
Tripoli.  In  1803,  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  determined  to  bring  the  war  to  a  close,  sent  out  a  large 
squadron  under  Commodore  Preble.  One  of  the  ships,  the 
Philadelphia,  commanded  by  Captain  Bainbridge,  when  recon- 
noitering  to  the  eastward  of  Tripoli  ran  aground,  and,  with 
her  officers  and  crew,  was  captured  by  a  fleet  of  the  enemy's 
gun-boats.  Decatur,  then  a  lieutenant,  proposed  to  his  com- 
mander to  retake  or  destroy  the  frigate. 


THE   TRIPOLITAN   WAR.  605 

The  consent  of  the  commodore 
having  been  obtained,  Lieutenant 
Decatur  selected  for  the  expedition 
a  ketch  (the  Intrepid)  which  he  had 
captured  a  few  weeks  before  from 
the  enemy,  and  manned  her  with 
seventy  volunteers,  chiefly  from  his 
own  crew.  He  sailed  from  Syra- 
cuse on  the  3d  of  February,  1804, 
accompanied  by  the  United  States 
brig  Syren,  Lieutenant  Stewart, 
pREBLE-  who  was  to  aid  with  his  boats  and 

to  receive  the  crew  of  the  ketch,  in  case  it  should  be  found 
expedient  to  use  her  as  a  fire-ship. 

After  fifteen  days  of  very  tempestuous  weather,  they  arrived 
at  the  harbour  of  Tripoli  a  little  before  sunset.  It  had  been 
arranged  between  Lieutenants  Decatur  and  Stewart,  that  the 
ketch  should  enter  the  harbour  about  ten  o'clock  that  night, 
attended  by  the  boats  of  the  Syren.  On  arriving  off  the  har- 
bour, the  Syren,  in  consequence  of  a  change  of  wind,  had  been 
thrown  six  or  eight  miles  without  the  Intrepid.  The  wind  at 
this  time  was  fair,  but  fast  declining,  and  Lieutenant  Decatur 
apprehended  that,  should  he  wait  for  the  Syren's  boats  to  come 
up,  it  might  be  fatal  to  the  enterprise,  as  they  could  not  remain 
longer  on  the  coast,  their  provisions  being  nearly  exhausted. 
For  these  reasons  he  determined  to  adventure  into  the  harbour 
alone,  which  he  did  about  eight  o'clock. 

An  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  extreme  hazard  of  the  enter- 
prise from  the  situation  of  the  frigate.  She  was  moored  within 
half  gunshot  of  the  bashaw's  castle  and  of  the  principal  bat- 
tery. Two  of  the  enemy's  cruisers  lay  within  two  cables' 
length  on  the  starboard  quarter,  and  their  gun-boats  within 
half  gunshot  on  the  starboard  bow.  All  the  guns  of  the  fri- 
gate were  mounted  and  loaded.  Such  were  the  immediate 
perils  that  our  hero  ventured  to  encounter  with  a  single  ketch, 
besides  the  other  dangers  that  abound  in  a  strongly  fortified 
harbour. 

Although  from  the  entrance  to  the  place  where  the  frigate 
lay  was  only  three  miles,  yet,  in  consequence  of  the  lightness 
of  the  wind,  they  did  not  get  within  hail  of  her  until  eleven 

8a2 


GOG  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 

o'clock.  When  they  had  approached  within  two  hundred  yards, 
they  were  hailed  and  ordered  to  anchor,  or  they  would  be  fired 
into.  Lieutenant  Decatur  ordered  a  Maltese  pilot,  who  was 
on  board  the  ketch,  to  answer  that  they  had  lost  their  anchors 
in  a  gale  of  wind  on  the  coast,  and  therefore  could  not  coin  ply 
with  their  request.  By  this  time  it  had  become  perfectly  calm, 
and  they  were  about  fifty  yards  from  the  frigate.  Lieutenant 
Decatur  ordered  a  small  boat  that  was  alongside  of  the  ketch 
to  take  a  rope  and  make  it  fast  to  the  frigate's  forechains.  This 
being  done,  they  began  to  warp  the  ketch  alongside.  It  was 
not  until  this  moment  that  the  enemy  suspected  the  character 
of  their  visitor,  and  great  confusion  immediately  ensued.  This 
enabled  our  adventurers  to  get  alongside  of  the  frigate,  when 
Decatur  immediately  sprang  aboard,  followed  by  Mr.  Charles 
Morris,  midshipman.  These  two  were  nearly  a  minute  on  deck 
before  their  companions  could  succeed  in  mounting  the  side. 
Fortunately  the  Turks  had  not  sufficiently  recovered  from  their 
surprise  to  take  advantage  of  this  delay.  They  were  crowded 
together  on  the  quarter-deck,  perfectly  astonished  and  aghast, 
without  making  any  attempt  to  oppose  the  assailing  party.  As 
soon  as  a  sufficient  number  had  gained  the  deck  to  form  a  front 
equal  to  that  of  the  enemy,  they  rushed  in  upon  them.  The 
Turks  stood  the  assault  for  a  short  time,  and  were  completely 
overpowered.  About  twenty  were  killed  on  the  spot ;  many 
jumped  overboard,  and  the  rest  flew  to  the  main-deck,  whither 
they  were  pursued  and  driven  to  the  hold. 

After  entire  possession  had  been  gained  of  the  ship,  and 
every  thing  prepared  to  set  fire  to  her,  a  number  of  launches 
were  seen  rowing  about  the  harbour.  This  determined  Lieute- 
nant Decatur  to  remain  on  board  the  frigate,  from  whence  a 
better  defence  could  be  made  than  on  board  the  ketch.  The 
enemy  had  already  commenced  firing  on  them  from  their  bat- 
teries and  castle,  and  from  two  corsairs  that  were  lying  near. 
Perceiving  that  the  launches  did  not  attempt  to  approach,  he 
ordered  the  ship  should  be  set  on  fire,  which  was  done,  at  the 
same  time,  in  different  parts.  As  soon  as  this  was  done,  they 
left  her,  and  such  was  the  rapidity  of  the  flames,  that  it  was 
with  the  utmost  difficulty  they  preserved  the  ketch.  At  this 
critical  moment  a  most  propitious  breeze  sprang  up,  blowing 
directly  out  of  the  harbour,  which,  in  a  few  moments,  carried 


THE   TMPOLITAN  WAR. 


<">09 


them  out  of  reach  of  the  enemy's  guns,  and  they  made  good 
their  retreat  Arithout  the  loss  of  a  single  man,  and  with  but  four 
wounded. 

For  this  gallant  and  romantic  achievement,  Lieutenant  De- 
catur was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  post-captain,  there  being  at 
that  time  no  intermediate  grade. 


610 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 


BOMBARDMENT  OF  TRIPOLI. 


N  April,  1804,  Commodore  Preble  decided  to  bom- 
1  bard  the  city  of  Tripoli.  His  force  consisted  of 
the  frigate  Constitution,  forty-four  guns,  twenty- 
four  pounders ;  brig  Argus,  eighteen  guns,  twen- 
ty-four pounders ;  brig  Syren,  eighteen  guns, 
eighteen  pounders  ;  Scourge  ;  schooner  Vixen,  sixteen  guns,  six 
pounders ;  schooner  Nautilus,  sixteen  guns,  six  pounders ;  En- 
terprise, fourteen  guns,  six  pounders ;  six  gun-boats  of  one 
brass  twenty- six  pounder  each ;  and  two  bombard  ketches, 
each  carrying  a  thirteen-inch  mortar ;  the  whole  number  of 
men,  one  thousand  and  sixty. 

The  enemy  had  on  his  castle  and  several  batteries  one  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  guns,  fifty-five  of  which  were  heavy  battering 
brass  cannon ;  the  others,  long  eighteen  and  twelve  pounders ; 
nineteen  gun-boats,  with  each  a  long  brass  eighteen  or  twenty- 
four  pounder  in  the  bow,  and  two  howitzers  abaft.     He  had  two 


BOMBARDMENT   OF   TRIPOLI.  (511 

schooners  of  eight  guns  each,  a  brig  of  ten,  and  two  galleys, 
having  each  four  guns.  In  addition  to  the  ordinary  Turkish 
garrison,  stationed  upon  the  fortifications,  and  the  crews  of  the 
boats  and  armed  vessels,  computed  at  about  three  thousand,  the 
bashaw  had  called  in  to  the  defence  of  his  city  more  than 
twenty  thousand  Arabs.  These  forces  were  arranged  in  the 
positions  best  adapted  for  repelling  an  attack,  and  also  for  seiz- 
ing the  occasion  of  falling  upon  any  detachment  of  the  invading 
force  which  could  be  drawn  from  the  main  body. 

The  weather  prevented  the  squadron  from  approaching  the 
enemy  till  the  28th,  when,  after  anchoring  within  two  and  a 
half  miles  of  his  line  of  defence,  the  wind  suddenly  shifted  and 
increased  to  a  gale.  They  were  compelled  to  weigh  and  gain 
an  offing.  On  the  1st  of  August,  the  gale  subsided,  and  the 
squadron  on  the  3d,  (the  weather  being  pleasant  and  the  wind 
at  east,)  at  noon  were  within  two  or  three  miles  of  the  batte- 
ries, which  were  all  closely  manned. 

The  commodore,  observing  that  several  of  the  enemy's  boats 
had  taken  a  station  without  the  reef  of  rocks  which  covers  the 
entrance  of  the  harbour,  about  two  miles  from  its  bottom,  re- 
solved to  take  advantage  of  this  circumstance,  and  made  signal 
for  the  squadron  to  come  within  speaking  distance,  when  he 
communicated  to  the  several  commanders  his  intention  of  at- 
tacking the  shipping  and  batteries.  The  gun  and  mortar  boats 
were  immediately  manned,  and  prepared  to  cast  off.  The  gun- 
boats in  two  divisions  of  three  each  :  the  first  division  under 
Captain  Somers  on  board  No.  1,  with  Lieutenant  James  Decatur 
in  No.  2,  and  Lieutenant  Blake  in  No.  3.  The  second  division 
under  Captain  Decatur  in  No.  4,  with  Lieutenant  Bainbridge 
in  No.  5,  and  Lieutenant  Trippe  in  No.  6.  The  two  bombards 
were  commanded  by  Lieutenant-commandant  Dent,  and  by  Mr. 
Robinson,  first  lieutenant  of  the  commodore's  ship.  At  half- 
past  one  o'clock,  the  squadron  stood  for  the  batteries  ;  at  two, 
cast  off  the  gun-boats  ;  at  half-past  two,  signal  for  the  bombs 
and  boats  to  advance  and  attack,  and  in  fifteen  minutes  after 
signal  was  given  for  general  action.  It  was  commenced  by  the 
bombs  throwing  shells  into  the  town.  In  an  instant  the  enemy's 
lines  opened  a  tremendous  fire  from  not  less  than  two  hundred 
guns,  which  was  promptly  returned  by  the  whole  squadron, 
now  within  musket-shot  of  the  principal  batteries. 


612  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

At  this  moment  Captain  Decatur,  with  his  three  gun-boats, 
attacked  the  enemy's  eastern  division,  consisting  of  nine.  He 
was  soon  in  the  centre  of  them,  and  the  fire  of  grape,  langrage, 
and  musketry  was  changed  to  a  deadly  personal  combat  with 
the  bayonet,  spear,  sabre,  and  tomahawk.  Captain  Decatur 
grappled  one  of  the  enemy's  boats,  and  boarded  with  but  fif- 
teen men.  He  parried  the  blows  of  five  Turks,  who  fell  upon 
him  with  cimeters,  so  as  to  receive  no  injury,  till  a  blow  from 
the  boat's  captain,  a  powerful  Turk,  cleft  his  blade  in  two.  He 
instantly  closed  with  the  Turk,  but,  overpowered  by  muscular 
strength,  he  fell  under  him  across  the  gunnel  of  the  boat.  In 
this  position,  he  drew  a  side-pistol  and  killed  his  antagonist. 
Meantime,  his  sergeant  and  a  marine  soldier,  seeing  his  dan- 
ger, flew  to  his  relief,  and  engaged  and  slew  the  other  four 
assailants.  By  this  time  the  other  thirteen  men  had  vanquished 
the  residue  of  the  crew,  thirty-one  in  number,  and  the  boat's 
colours  were  hauled  down.  Captain  Decatur  left  this  boat  in 
charge  of  an  officer,  and  immediately,  with  Lieutenant  McDo- 
nough  and  eight  men  besides  himself,  laid  another  boat  on 
board,  which  he  carried,  after  a  desperate  and  bloody  encounter 
of  a  few  minutes.  The  fierce  desperation  of  the  Arnaout 
Turks,  who  value  themselves  on  never  yielding,  made  the 
slaughter  of  the  enemy  in  these  conflicts  immense.  The  two 
prizes  of  Captain  Decatur  had  thirty-three  officers  and  men 
killed,  and  twenty-seven  made  prisoners,  nineteen  of  whom 
were  severely  wounded. 

Lieutenant  Trippe  boarded  one  of  the  enemy's  large  boats 
with  only  a  midshipman,  Mr.  Jonathan  Henley,  and  nine  men. 
His  boat  falling  off  before  any  more  could  join  him,  he  was  left 
to  concpier  or  perish  with  the  fearful  odds  of  eleven  to  thirty- 
six.  In  a  few  minutes,  however,  though  for  a  moment  the  vic- 
tory seemed  dubious,  the  enemy  was  subdued  ;  fourteen  of  them 
lost  their  lives,  and  twenty-two  submitted  to  be  prisoners,  seven 
of  whom  were  badly  wounded.  Lieutenant  Trippe  received 
eleven  sabre  wounds,  some  of  which  were  deep  and  dangerous. 
The  blade  of  his  sword  also  yielded.  He  closed  with  the 
enemy ;  both  fell,  but  in  the  struggle  Trippe  wrested  the  Turk's 
sword  from  him,  and  with  it  pierced  his  body.  Mr.  Henley,  in 
this  encounter,  displayed  a  valour  joined  to  a  coolness  that 
would  have  honoured  a  veteran.     Lieutenant  Bainbridge  had 


BOMBARDMENT   OF   TRIPOLI.  613 

his  lateen-yard  shot  away,  which  baffled  his  utmost  exertions  to 
get  alongside  the  enemy's  boats  ;  but  his  active  and  well-di- 
rected fire,  within  musket-shot,  was  very  effective.  At  one 
time  he  had,  in  his  ardour,  pushed  forward  so  that  his  boat 
grounded  within  pistol  shot  of  one  of  the  enemy's  formidable 
batteries,  and  where  he  was  exposed  to  volleys  of  musketry. 
But,  by  address  and  courage,  he  extricated  himself  from  this 
situation,  and,  so  ill-directed  was  the  enemy's  fire,  without 
receiving  any  injury. 

Captain  Somers  was  not  able  to  fetch  far  enough  to  wind- 
ward to  co-operate  with  Decatur.  But  he  bore  down  upon  the 
leeward  division  of  the  enemy,  and,  with  his  single  boat  within 
pistol  shot,  attacked  five  full-manned  boats,  defeated  and  drove 
them  in  a  shattered  condition,  and  with  the  loss  of  many  lives, 
under  shelter  of  the  rocks. 

Lieutenant  Decatur,  in  No.  2,  engaged  with  one  of  the  ene- 
my's largest  boats,  which  struck  after  the  loss  of  the  greatest 
part  of  her  men.  At  the  moment  this  brave  young  officer  was 
stepping  on  board  his  prize,  he  was  shot  through  the  head  by 
the  Turkish  captain,  who,  by  this  means,  escaped,  while  the 
Americans  were  recovering  the  body  of  their  unfortunate  com- 
mander. 

The  two  bomb-vessels  kept  their  station,  although  often  co- 
vered with  the  spray  of  the  sea,  occasioned  by  the  enemy's  shot. 
They  kept  up  a  constant  fire  and  threw  a  great  number  of  shells 
into  the  town.  Five  of  the  enemy's  gun-boats  and  two  galleys, 
composing  their  centre  division,  stationed  within  the  rocks, 
joined  by  the  boats  which  had  been  driven  in  and  reinforced, 
twice  attempted  to  row  out  and  surround  our  gun-boats  and 
prizes.  They  were  as  often  foiled  by  the  vigilance  of  the  com- 
modore, who  gave  signal  to  the  brigs  and  schooners  to  cover 
them,  which  was  propeidy  attended  to  by  these  vessels,  all  of 
which  were  gallantly  conducted,  and  annoyed  the  enemy  ex- 
ceedingly. The  fire  of  the  Constitution  had  its  ample  share 
in  this  bombardment.  It  kept  the  enemy's  flotilla  in  constant 
disorder,  and  produced  no  inconsiderable  effect  on  shore.  The 
frigate  was  constantly  in  easy  motion,  and  always  found  where 
danger  threatened  to  defeat  the  arrangements  of  the  day.  Se- 
veral times  she  was  within  two  cables'  length  of  the  rocks,  and 
three  of  the  batteries,  every  one  of  which  were  successively 

3B 


614  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

silenced  as  often  as  her  broadside  could  be  brought  to  bear  on 
them  ;  but  having  no  large  vessels  to  secure  these  advantages, 
when  circumstances  compelled  her  to  change  her  position,  the 
silenced  batteries  were  reanimated.  "  We  suffered  most,"  says 
the  commodore,  "  when  wearing  or  tacking.  It  was  then  I 
most  sensibly  felt  the  want  of  another  frigate." 

At  half-past  four,  the  wind  inclining  to  the  northward,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  enemy's  flotilla  having  retreated  behind 
coverts  which  shielded  them  from  our  shot,  while  our  people 
were  necessarily  much  exhausted  by  two  hours  and  a  half  severe 
exertion,  signal  was  given  for  the  gunboats  and  bombs  to  retire 
from  action ;  and,  immediately  after,  to  the  brigs  and  schooners 
to  take  the  gunboats  and  their  prizes  in  tow,  which  was  hand- 
somely executed,  the  whole  covered  by  a  heavy  fire  from  the 
Constitution.  In  fifteen  minutes  the  squadron  was  out  of  reach 
of  the  enemy's  shot,  and  the  commodore  hauled  off  to  give  tow 
to  the  bomb  ketches. 

The  squadron  were  more  than  two  hours  within  grapeshot 
distance  of  the  enemy's  batteries,  and  under  a  constant  fire. 
But  the  damage  received  was  in  no  proportion  to  the  apparent 
danger,  or  to  the  effect  produced  by  the  assailants.  The  frigate 
took  a  thirty-two  pound  shot  in  her  mainmast,  about  thirty  feet 
from  the  deck ;  her  sails  and  rigging  were  considerably  cut ; 
one  of  her  quarter-deck  guns  was  injured  by  a  round  shot, 
which  burst  in  pieces  and  shattered  a  mariner's  arm,  but  not  a 
man  was  killed  on  board  of  her.  The  other  vessels  and  boats 
suffered  in  their  rigging,  and  had  sundry  men  wounded,  but  lost 
none  except  Lieutenant  Decatur,  the  brother  of  the  Captain 
Decatur,  so  conspicuous  in  this  war.  Several  circumstances  ex- 
plain this  impunity  of  our  squadron.  Where  the  engagement 
was  close — as  with  the  boats — the  impetuosity  of  the  attack,  as 
well  as  our  more  dexterous  use  of  the  weapons  of  destruction, 
overpowered  and  appalled  the  enemy.  The  barbarians  are  un- 
skilful gunners.  The  shower  of  grapeshot  annoyed  and  dis- 
composed them  in  the  application  of  what  little  skill  they  pos- 
sessed. The  assailing  party  were  so  near  as  to  be  overshot  by 
the  batteries ;  especially  as  the  managers  of  the  guns  were  so 
fearful  of  exposing  their  heads  above  the  parapets  as  easily  to 
oversight  their  object. 

Very  different  was  the  result  of  this  conflict  to  the  enemy. 


BOMBARDMENT   OF   TRIPOLI.  615 

The  American  fire  was  not  an  empty  peal,  but  a  messenger  of 
death  in  every  direction.  The  three  captured  boats  had  one 
hundred  and  three  men  on  board,  forty-seven  of  whom  were 
killed,  twenty-six  wounded,  and  thirty  only  fit  for  duty.  Three 
other  boats  were  sunk,  with  their  entire  crews,  and  the  decks 
of  their  vessels  in  the  harbour  were  swept  of  numbers.  The 
effect  on  shore  was  not  so  great  as  in  the  shipping,  but  still  such 
as  to  spread  consternation.  Several  Turks  were  killed  and 
wounded,  and  many  guns  of  the  fort  dismounted,  and  the  town 
was  considerably  damaged. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  bombardment  made  a  powerful 
impression  on  the  mind  of  the  enemy.  The  burning  of  the 
Philadelphia  could  not  fail  to  make  the  bashaw  and  his  people 
apprehend  something  serious  from  the  present  commander. 
When  the  squadron  was  seen  standing  in,  however,  he  affected 
contempt,  and  surveying  them  from  his  palace,  observed,  "  They 
will  mark  their  distance  for  tacking ;  they  are  a  sort  of  Jews, 
who  have  no  notion  of  fighting."  The  palace  and  terraces  of 
the  houses  were  crowded  with  spectators,  to  see  the  chastisement 
the  bashaw's  boats  would  give  the  squadron,  if  they  approached 
too  near.  This  exultation  was  very  transient.  The  battle  was 
scarcely  joined,  when  no  one  was  seen  on  shore,  except  on  the 
batteries.  Many  of  the  inhabitants  fled  into  the  country;  and 
the  bashaw,  it  is  said,  retreated  with  his  priest  to  his  bomb- 
proof room.  An  intelligent  officer  of  the  Philadelphia,  then  in 
captivity,  observes,  that  the  Turks  asked  if  those  men  that 
fought  so  were  Americans,  or  infernals  in  Christian  shape,  sent 
to  destroy  the  sons  of  the  prophet.  "  The  English,  French, 
and  Spanish  consuls,"  say  they,  "have  told  us  that  they  are  a 
young  nation,  and  got  their  independence  by  means  of  France ; 
that  they  had  a  small  navy,  and  their  officers  were  inexpe- 
rienced, and  that  they  were  merely  a  nation  of  merchants,  and 
that  by  taking  their  ships  and  men  we  should  get  great  ran- 
soms. Instead  of  this,  their  Preble  pays  us  a  coin  of  shot, 
shells,  and  hard  blows ;  and  sent  a  Decatur,  in  a  dark  night, 
with  a  band  of  Christian  dogs  fierce  and  cruel  as  the  tiger,  who 
killed  our  brothers  and  burnt  our  ships  before  our  eyes." 


61 G 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   IIISTORY. 


GENERAL    WILLIAM    EATON. 


CAPTURE   OF   DERNE   AND   CLOSE   OF 
THE   WAR. 


URING  the  months  of  August  and 
September,  other  repeated  attacks 
were  made  on  the  fortifications  and 
city  of  Tripoli  by  the  American 
squadron,  which  did  great  injury  to 


.LTLJ 


12k 

ifjij  the  Tripolitans,  and    evinced    the 
fc\A^S|  skill  and  valour  of  the  Americans, 
p  without  producing  any  decisive  re- 
sult. 

It  was  now  determined  to  unite  a  land  expedition  with  the 
operations  of  the  fleet,  and  the  singular  spectacle  was  exhibited 
of  the  invasion  of  an  African  state  by  an  American  force.  The 
command  of  this  enterprise  was  intrusted  to  General  William 


CAPTURE    OF    DERNE    AND    CLOSE 


THE    WAR 


617 


CAPTURE    OF    DERNE. 


Eaton,  who  succeeded  in  forming  an  alliance  with  Haraet,  the 
ex-bashaw  of  Tripoli,  who  had  been  unjustly  deprived  of  the 
government  and  expelled  by  his  brother,  the  reigning  bashaw. 
Having  met  Hamet  in  Egypt,  where  he  held  command  of  an 
army  of  Mamelukes  at  war  with  the  Turkish  government,  Eaton 
united  his  handful  of  troops  with  those  of  his  ally,  and  marched 
from  Alexandria  on  the  6th  of  March,  1805.  After  accom- 
plishing a  route  of  more  than  1000  miles, — a  parallel  to  which, 
in  peril,  fatigue,  and  suffering,  can  hardly  be  found  but  in 
romance, — he  arrived  before  Derne  on  the  25th  of  April,  and 
summoning  the  governor  to  surrender  the  city,  he  received  the 
doughty  reply,  "My  head  or  yours  !" 

On  the  27th,  Derne  was  assaulted  by  the  troops  of  Hamet 
and  the  Americans,  under  the  command  of  Eaton,  and  after  a 
contest  of  two  hours  and  a  half  was  carried  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet.  The  assault  was  supported  by  the  American  squad- 
ron, which  had  previously  arrived  in  the  bay,  as  agreed  upon. 
The  governor  and  many  of  his  adherents  fled  to  the  desert. 
78  3  b2 


618 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


The  Americans  suffered  severely  in  the  assault,  and  General 
Eaton  himself  was  "wounded  in  the  wrist.  The  inhabitants  of 
the  city  submitted  to  the  authority  of  Haraet. 

Eaton's  next  exploit  was  the  successful  resistance  of  a  siege 
by  the  army  of  the  reigning  bashaw  of  Tripoli,  who  advanced 
to  recapture  Derne,  and  experienced  a  signal  defeat,  being 
compelled  to  yield  to  the  superior  skill  and  discipline  of  Eaton's 
forces.  His  career  of  victory,  however,  was  cut  short  by  the 
arrival  of  the  Constitution  frigate  in  the  harbour  of  Derne, 
with  the  news  of  a  treaty  of  peace,  on  terms  much  less  advan- 
tageous than  Eaton  might  have  dictated  if  left  to  his  own 
resources.  By  this  arrangement,  entered  into  by  Mr.  Lear  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States,  with  the  reigning  bashaw,  the 
American  prisoners  were  ransomed  for  60,000  dollars,  and  the 
cause  of  Hamet  was  abandoned.  This  treaty  was  by  no  means 
acceptable  to  the  American  people,  who  have  an  insuperable 
aversion  to  purchasing  peace  with  gold,  and  honour  the  custom 
of  ransoming  prisoners  with  steel. 


COMMENCEMENT   OF   THE   WAR   OF   1812. 


619 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  WAR  OF  1812. 


N  the  course  of  the  prolonged  struggle 
between  Napoleon  and  England,  each  at- 
tempted to  destroy  the  commerce  of  the 
other.  Hence  the  famous  Berlin  and  Mi- 
lan decrees  of  Napoleon,  and  the  orders 
in  council  of  the  British  government,  mak- 
ing prizes  of  neutral  ships  engaged  in 
the  carrying  trade.  The  United  States 
suffered  heavily  by  these  proceedings,  and  felt  injured  and  in- 
sulted by  the  imprisonment  of  American  seamen,  haughtily  per- 
sisted in  by  the  British.  The  consequence  was,  a  declaration  of 
war  against  Great  Britain  by  the  United  States,  which  took 
place  on  the  18th  of  June,  1812. 

When  the  war  of  independence  was  commenced,  the  United 
States  contained  less  than  four  millions  of  inhabitants,  and  had 
neither  an  army,  a  treasury,  nor  a  national  existence.  But  it 
possessed  a  people  united  in  purpose,  and  firmly  resolved  to  vin- 
dicate their  rights.  At  the  opening  of  the  war  of  1812,  the 
country  had  eight  .millions  of  inhabitants,  great  resources  of 
wealth,  and  all  the  elements  of  an  efficient  army  and  navy.  But 
the  people  were  divided  in  sentiment,  indisposed  for  war  by  a 


620 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 


GENERAL    DEARBORN. 


long  continuance  of  peace,  and  unfit  for  its  successful  prosecu- 
tion by  inexperience  and  irresolution.  Their  early  movements 
in  the  new  contest  were  marked  by  a  character  of  indecision 
corresponding  with  this  want  of  preparation.  It  was  not  till 
near  the  close  of  the  conflict  that  the  national  spirit  was  fully 
roused  ;  and  the  results  at  that  period  were  such  as  to  show 
that,  when  fairly  and  heartily  embarked  in  a  contest,  the  people 
possess  the  same  spirit  and  the  same  moral  power  which  carried 
them  so  nobly  through  the  struggle  for  independence. 

In  organizing  the  army,  Henry  Dearborn,  of  Massachusetts 
was  appointed  major-general  and  commander-in-chief.  He  had 
served  in  the  revolutionary  contest,  and  had  subsequently  borne 
the  office  of  secretary  of  war.  Thomas  Pinckney,  of  South 
Carolina,  also   received   a    commission   as   major-general,  and 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  WAR  OF  1812.  621 

Wilkinson,  Hampton,  Bloomfield,  and  Hull  were  among  the 
brigadier-generals. 

The  army,  which  until  the  year  1808  had  numbered  no  more 
than  three  thousand  men,  had  then  been  augmented  to  six  thou- 
sand. In  January,  1812,  congress  had  directed  a  force  of  up- 
wards of  twenty-five  thousand  to  be  raised,  so  that  the  entire 
force  authorized  by  law  now  exceeded  thirty-five  thousand,  in- 
cluding officers  ;  consisting  of  twenty-five  regiments  of  infantry, 
three  of  artillery,  two  of  light  artillery,  two  of  dragoons,  and 
two  rifle  regiments.  In  addition  to  this,  the  president  was  au- 
thorized to  accept  the  services  of  any  number  of  volunteers,  not 
exceeding  fifty  thousand,  who  were  to  be  armed  and  equipped 
by  the  United  States ;  and  a  similar  authority  was  given  to  him 
to  call  upon  the  governors  of  states  for  detachments  of  militia, 
the  whole  of  which  was  not  to  exceed  one  hundred  thousand. 

Though  apparently  formidable,  this  force  wanted  many  of  the 
requisites  of  an  efficient  army.  The  act  authorizing  the  raising 
of  twenty-five  thousand  men  had  been  passed  so  short  a  time 
before  the  declaration  of  war,  that  scarcely  one-fourth  of  that 
number  was  enlisted;  and  these  were  by  no  means  in  a  high 
state  of  discipline.  The  volunteers  and  militia  were  yet  to  be 
called  for,  as  occasion  might  require,  and  their  services  were 
considered  of  very  doubtful  utility.  Even  in  the  revolutionary 
war,  they  had  been  pronounced,  by  high  authority,  a  most  in- 
efficient species  of  force,  and  the  long  peace  had  certainly  not 
increased  their  efficiency.  The  officers,  however,  who  had  the 
direction  of  the  military  force,  had  served  with  distinction,  and 
high  hopes  were  entertained  of  a  successful  campaign. 

The  whole  navy  of  the  United  States  consisted  of  but  ten 
frigates,  five  of  which  were  laid  up  in  ordinary,  ten  sloops  and 
smaller  vessels,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  gun-boats,  only 
sixty  of  which  were  in  commission.  With  this  trifling  force,  war 
was  commenced  with  a  power  that  numbered  a  thousand  ships 
afloat,  and  boasted  herself  the  mistress  of  the  ocean.  The  com- 
merce and  fisheries  of  the  United  States,  however,  had  given  her 
the  elements  of  a  navy  ;  and  if  the  Americans  had  not  many 
ships,  subsequent  events  proved  that  they  had  men ;  and  that 
the  efficiency  of  a  navy  depends  more  upon  discipline  and  cou- 
rage than  upon  the  size  and  number  of  its  vessels. 

The  plan  of  operations  at  the  commencement  of  the  war  was 


022  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


COLONEL   MACARTHUR. 


to  garrison  and  defend  the  sea-board  principally  by  occasional 
calls  on  the  militia,  aided  by  a  few  of  the  regular  troops,  the 
whole  to  be  under  the  direction  of  the  generals  of  the  regular 
army,  stationed  at  the  most  important  points.  The  remaining 
regular  troops,  with  such  volunteers  as  could  be  procured  and 
a  portion  of  the  militia,  were  to  attack  the  British  posts  in  Up- 
per Canada  and  subdue  them,  with  the  ultimate  design  of  in- 
vading and  conquering  Lower  Canada. 

With  these  views,  William  Hull,  the  governor  of  Michigan 
territory, '  having  been  appointed  a  brigadier-general,  on  the 
25th  of  May,  took  command  of  the  army  destined  for  the  in- 
vasion of  Canada.  On  the  1st  of  June,  he  rendezvoused  at 
Urbanna,  in  Ohio.  His  force  consisted  of  five  hundred  regular 
troops,  and  twelve  hundred  Ohio  volunteers,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonels  McArthur  and  Cass.  Proceeding  in  a  north- 
westerly direction,  the  army  marched  through  a  wilderness  to 
Detroit,  the  capital  of  Michigan  territory,  situated  on  the  west 
bank  of  Detroit  river. 

On  his  arrival  at  this  place,  General  Hull  was  joined  by  the 
Michigan  militia;  and  expecting  the  co-operation  of  General 
Dearborn  on  the  Niagara  frontier,  he  made  his  descent  on  Ca- 
nada on  the  12th  of  July.  He  crossed  the  river  and  established 
his  head-quarters  at  Sandwich,  a  village  on  the  opposite  bank. 


COMMENCEMENT   OF   THE   WAR   OF   1812.  623 

Here  he  issued  a  proclamation,  offering  peace  and  protection  to 
the  Canadians  who  would  remain  at  home,  and  threatening  ex- 
termination to  such  as  should  be  found  in  arms  associated  with 
the  Indians.  He  further  declared  that  he  commanded  a  force 
sufficient  to  "look  down  all  opposition,"  which  was  but  the  van 
of  a  much  greater  force.  In  consequence  of  this  proclamation, 
several  hundred  Canadian  militia  joined  the  Americans,  or  re- 
turned to  their  homes  under  General  Hull's  protection. 
-  Meantime  the  British  had  collected  a  considerable  force  of 
Canadians  and  Indians,  and  strengthened  their  garrison  at 
Maiden. 

Excepting  some  skirmishing  parties  under  the  command  of 
Colonels  McArthur  and  Cass,  nothing  was  done  to  promote  the 
objects  of  the  invasion  till  August  8th;  General  Hull  remaining 
during  the  interval  in  his  encampment  at  Sandwich.  He  then 
gave  orders  for  the  main  body  to  re-cross  the  river  and  retire  to 
Detroit,  abandoning  the  Canadians  who  had  accepted  his  pro- 
tection to  the  vengeance  of  their  own  government,  and  disgusting 
his  own  men  with  his  inertness  and  pusillanimity. 

Towards  the  last  of  July,  a  reinforcement  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  volunteers  from  Ohio,  under  Captain  Brush,  who  had  been 
ordered  to  join  General  Hull,  arrived  at  the  river  Raisin,  thirty- 
six  miles  below  Detroit.  Here  they  were  ordered  to  await  an 
escort  from  the  camp.  Two  hundred  militia,  under  Major  Van- 
horn,  being  sent  on  this  service,  fell  into  an  ambuscade  of  In- 
dians, and  were  obliged  to  retreat,  with  the  loss  of  seventeen 
killed  and  thirty  wounded. 

On  the  8th  of  August,  a  detachment  of  six  hundred  men,  un- 
der Qolonel  Miller,  being  despatched  on  the  same  service,  were 
attacked  by  a  large  body  of  British  and  Indians  within  fourteen 
miles  of  Detroit.  The  enemy  was  gallantly  resisted,  and  com- 
pelled to  retreat  with  a  heavy  loss ;  but  the  detachment  returned 
to  Detroit  on  the  10th,  without  effecting  its  object. 

While  these  events  were  passing,  General  Brock,  the  governor 
of  Canada,  had  been  making  active  preparations  for  its  defence. 
He  issued  a  proclamation  in  answer  to  that  of  General  Hull,  re- 
minding the  Canadians  of  their  previous  prosperity  and  freedom 
under  the  British  government,  and  calling  upon  them  to  join 
his  standard.  This  address  was  not  without  effect.  The  Ca- 
nadians joined  the  governor  in  great  numbers,  and  on  the  13th 


624 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


COLONEL    CASS. 


of  August,  General  Brock  arrived  at  Maiden,  with  a  respectable 
force,  just  after  the  American  troops  had  retired  from  the  Ca- 
nadian shore,  dispirited  and  disgusted  with  their  commander. 
On  the  15th,  General  Brock  erected  batteries  on  the  bank  of  the 
river  opposite  Detroit,  and  summoned  the  American  general  to 
surrender  ;  stating  that  he  should  otherwise  be  unable  to  restrain 
the  Indians  from  committing  their  usual  atrocities.  This  sum- 
mons was  answered  by  a  refusal,  and  a  declaration  that  the  for- 
tress would  be  defended  to  the  last  extremity.  The  firing  from 
the  fortifications  on  both  sides  now  commenced,  and  continued 
with  little  effect  till  the  next  day. 

General  Hull  had  by  this  time  become  so  much  alarmed  as 
to  betray  his  cowardice  to  his  own  officers  and  men,  by  his  ap- 
pearance and  his  hasty  and  irregular  measures.  On  the  12th 
the  field-officers  had  determined  to  arrest  him,  and  were  only 
prevented  by  the  absence  of  Colonels  Cass  and  McArthur,  who 


COMMENCEMENT   OF   THE   WAR   OF  1812.  625 

had  been  detached  with  400  men  on  a  third  expedition  to  the 
river  Raisin.     On  the  15th  they  received  orders  to  return. 

On  the  16th,  the  British  troops  began  to  cross  the  river  to  the 
American  side,  three  miles  below  the  town,  under  cover  of  two 
ships  of  war.  Having  landed,  they  commenced  their  march 
towards  the  fort.  Besides  the  fourth  regiment  of  regular  troops 
stationed  in  the  fort,-  it  was  protected  by  the  Ohio  volunteers, 
and  a  part  of  the  Michigan  militia,  placed  behind  the  pickets 
where  the  whole  flank  of  the  British  would  have  been  exposed 
to  their  fire.  The  remainder  of  the  militia  were  stationed  in 
the  town  of  Detroit,  for  the  purpose  of  resisting  the  desultory 
attacks  of  the  savages.  Two  four-pounders,  loaded  with  grape, 
were  placed  on  an  eminence,  ready  to  sweep  the  advancing 
columns.  McArthur  and  Cass,  on  their  return  from  the  expe- 
dition on  which  they  had  been  ordered,  had  arrived  within  view 
of  Detroit,  and  were  ready  to  attack  the  enemy  on  the  rear. 
There  was  every  reason  to  anticipate  a  victory,  and  the  troops 
were  eagerly  expecting  the  commencement  of  the  battle. 

When  the  British  columns  were  within  five  hundred  yards  of  the 
American  line,  General  Hull  ordered  the  troops  to  retire  into  the 
fort,  and  the  artillery  not  to  fire.  A  white  flag  was  then  hoisted, 
and  a  British  officer  rode  up  to  inquire  the  cause.  A  commu- 
nication was  opened  between  the  commanding  generals,  which 
speedily  terminated  in  a  capitulation.  The  fortress  of  Detroit, 
Avith  the  garrison  and  munitions  of  war,  were  surrendered.  The 
detachment  under  Cass  and  McArthur,  and  even  the  troops  at 
the  river  Raisin,  were  included  in  the  capitulation.  Captain 
Brush,  however,  not  considering  himself  bound  by  Hull's  en- 
gagement, on  being  summoned  to  surrender,  broke  up  his  camp 
and  retreated  towards  Ohio.  The  Canadians  who  had  joined 
Hull,  or  accepted  his  protection,  were  abandoned  to  their  fate, 
and  many  of  them  were  subsequently  executed  as  traitors. 

Every  circumstance  which  could  heighten  the  disgrace  of  a 
surrender  was  found  in  the  present  instance.  Hull  did  not  even 
call  a  council  of  his  officers.  His  only  object  seems  to  have 
been  to  escape  from  the  Indian  scalping-knife.  When  he  had 
first  entered  Canada  the  British  had  at  Maiden  but  100  regu- 
lar troops,  400  Canadian  militia,  and  a  few  hundred  Indians. 
After  General  Brock's  arrival,  their  whole  force  was  830  regu- 
lars, 400  militia,  and  600  Indians.  The  army  surrendered  by 
79  3C 


G26  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

General  Hull   amounted  to   2500   men,  of  whom  1200  were 
militia. 

The  indignation  of  the  Americans  at  this  disgraceful  transac- 
tion knew  no  bounds.  When  the  arrogant  proclamation  of  Hull 
was  contrasted  with  his  subsequent  indecisive  and  timid  move- 
ments, and  his  ultimate  abandonment  of  all  manhood  or  decency, 
his  whole  conduct  was  regarded  with  a  unanimous  feeling  of 
derision  and  contempt.  The  government,  of  course,  brought 
him  to  trial  by  court  martial  as  soon  as  he  was  exchanged.  He 
was  charged  with  treason,  cowardice,  and  neglect  of  duty,  found 
guilty  of  the  two  latter  charges,  and  sentenced  to  be  shot.  In 
consideration  of  former  services  his  life  was  spared.  The  trial 
did  not  take  place  till  1814,  but  it  is  mentioned  in  this  connec- 
tion in  order  that  the  whole  affair  may  be  dismissed  as  speedily 
as  possible  from  the  reader's  notice. 

The  surrender  of  Hull  left  the  north-western  frontier  exposed 
to  the  incursions  of  the  British  and  Indians,  and  occasioned 
considerable  alarm  in  the  neighbouring  states.  Nearly  ten 
thousand  volunteers  immediately  offered  their  services  to  the 
government ;  and  being  placed  under  the  command  of  General 
William  H.  Harrison,  marched  towards  the  territory  of  Michi- 
gan. This  force,  however,  was  not  sufficiently  disciplined  to 
act  with  the  efficiency  of  regular  troops,  and  before  any  thing 
could  be  done  towards  retrieving  the  important  losses  of  the 
early  part  of  the  campaign,  the  winter  set  in.  Their  operations 
were  chiefly  confined  to  incursions  into  the  country  of  the  In- 
dians, who  had  generally  become  hostile. 

General  Van  Rensselaer,  of  the  New  York  militia,  had  com- 
mand of  what  was  called  the  army  of  the  centre,  destined  also 
for  the  invasion  of  Canada.  His  force  consisted  of  regulars 
and  militia,  who  were  assembled  at  Lewistown,  on  the  Niagara 
river.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  was  a  fortified  British 
post,  called  Queenstown,  which  was  the  first  object  of  attack. 
On  the  13th  of  October,  a  detachment  of  1000  men,  led  by 
Colonel  Van  Rensselaer,  crossed  the  river  and  effected  a  land- 
ing under  a  heavy  fire  from  the  British. 

In  the  onset,  the  colonel  was  wounded  ;  and  the  troops  under 
Colonels  Christie  and  Scott  were  led  on  to  the  assault  of  the 
fortress.  They  succeeded  in  capturing  it ;  and  a  reinforce- 
ment of  six  hundred  men,  under  General  Brock,  arriving  and 


COMMENCEMENT   OF   THE   WAR   OF    1812. 


627 


BATTLE    OF    QOEENSTOWN. 


attacking  the  victors,  were  repulsed  with  the  loss  of  their  com- 
mander. 

General  Van  Rensselaer  had  crossed  the  river,  and  now  re- 
turned to  bring  over  a  reinforcement  of  the  Americans.  But 
his  troops  refused  to  obey  the  order  ;  and  the  British,  receiving 
another  reinforcement,  recaptured  the  fort  after  a  severe 
engagement,  in  which  the  greater  part  of  Colonel  Van  Rensse- 
laer's detachment  was  destroyed. 

General  Van  Rensselaer  now  retired  from  the  service,  and 
was  succeeded  by  General  Smyth,  of  Virginia.  He  commenced 
operations  by  issuing  a  proclamation  addressed  to  the  "  men  of 
New  York,"  and  couched  in  terms  similar  to  those  employed  by 
General  Hull.  He  was  soon  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  4500 
men  ;  and  the  28th  of  November  was  the  day  appointed  for 
crossing  the  river  for  the  third  invasion  of  Canada.  The  troops 
were  embarked,  but  the  enemy  appearing  on  the  opposite  shore 
with  a  determined  front,  a  council  of  war  was  held,  and  the 
invasion  was  postponed  till  the  1st  of  December,  when,  although 
1500  of  the  men  were  ready  and  willing  to  cross  the  river,  a 
second  council  of  war  decided  that  it  was  inexpedient  to  pro- 


628 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


ceed,  and  the  troops  were  again  debarked.  The  invasion  of 
Canada  at  that  point  was  thus  finally  abandoned  for  the  season. 
The  army  of  the  north  was  commanded  by  General  Dearborn. 
A  part  of  the  forces  were  stationed  at  Greenbush,  near  Albany, 
and  the  remainder  at  Plattsburgh,  on  Lake  Champlain.  This 
division  of  the  army  effected  nothing  but  an  incursion  into 
Canada,  in  which  a  small  body  of  British  and  Indians  and 
some  military  stores  were  taken.  The  failure  of  the  other 
expeditions  had  the  effect  of  discouraging  the  general  from  any 
serious  attempt  on  the  British  territory. 


FORT     NIAGARA. 


CAPTURE  OF  THE  GUERRIERE. 


629 


CAPTAIN    HULL. 


CAPTURE  OF  THE  GUERRIERE. 


HE    disasters   of   the   Americans 
in   the  land   campaign   of  1812 
were  compensated  by  several  bril- 
liant victories.      The  first  remark- 
able naval  victory  was  that  of  the 
frigate  Constitution, Captain  Hull, 
over  the  frigate  Guerriere,  Cap- 
tain  Dacres.      The   action  took 
place  on  the  19th  of  August,  1812. 
At  half-past  three,  p.  m.,   Captain  Hull  made  out  his  an- 
tagonist to  be  a  frigate,  and  continued  the  chase  till  he  was 
within  about  three  miles,  when  he  cleared  for  action  ;  the  chase 


630  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

backed  her  main-topsail  and  waited  for  him  to  come  down.  As 
soon  as  the  Constitution  was  ready,  Hull  bore  down  to  bring 
the  enemy  to  close  action  immediately ;  but,  on  his  coming 
within  gun-shot,  the  Guerriere  gave  a  broadside  and  filled  away 
and  wore,  giving  a  broadside  on  the  other  tack,  but  without 
effect,  her  shot  falling  short.  She  then  continued  wearing  and 
manoeuvring  for  about  three-quarters  of  an  hour  to  get  a  raking 
position  ;  but,  finding  she  could  not,  she  bore  up  and  ran  under 
her  topsails  and  jib,  with  the  wind  on  the  quarter.  During  this 
time,  the  Constitution  not  having  fired  a  single  broadside,  the 
impatience  of  the  officers  and  men  to  engage  was  excessive. 
Nothing  but  the  most  rigid  discipline  could  have  restrained 
them.  Hull,  however,  was  preparing  to  decide  the  contest  in  a 
summary  method  of  his  own.  He  now  made  sail  to  bring  the 
Constitution  up  with  her  antagonist,  and  at  five  minutes  before 
six,  P.  M.,  being  alongside  ivithin  half  pistol-shot,  he  commenced 
a  heavy  fire  from  all  his  guns,  double-shotted  with  round  and 
grape,  and  so  well  directed  and  so  well  kept  up  was  the  fire, 
that  in  sixteen  minutes  the  mizen-mast  of  the  Guerriere  went 
by  the  board,  and  her  mainyard  in  the  slings,  and  the  hull,  rig- 
ging, and  sails  were  completely  torn  to  pieces.  The  fire  was 
kept  up  for  fifteen  minutes  longer,  when  the  main  and  foremast 
went,  taking  with  them  every  spar  except  the  bowsprit,  and 
leaving  the  Guerriere  a  complete  wreck.  On  seeing  this,  Hull 
ordered  the  firing  to  cease,  having  brought  his  enemy  in  thirty 
minutes  after  he  was  fairly  alongside  to  such  a  condition  that 
a  few  more  broadsides  must  have  carried  her  down. 

The  prize  being  so  shattered  that  she  was  not  worth  bringing 
into  port,  after  removing  the  prisoners  to  the  Constitution,  she 
was  set  on  fire  and  blown  up.  In  the  action,  the  Constitution 
lost  seven  killed  and  seven  wounded ;  the  Guerriere,  fifteen 
killed,  sixty-two  wounded,  including  the  captain  and  several 
officers,  and  twenty-four  missing. 

The  news  of  this  victory  was  received  in  the  United  States 
with  the  greatest  joy  and  exultation.  All  parties  united  in 
celebrating  it,  and  the  citizens  and  public  authorities  vied  with 
each  other  in  bestowing  marks  of  approbation  upon  Captain 
Hull  and  his  gallant  officers  and  crew. 


CAPTURE   OF   THE   FROLIC. 


631 


CAPTAIN     JONES. 


CAPTURE  OF  THE  FROLIC  AND  THE 
MACEDONIAN. 

~]N  1811,  Captain  Jacob  Jones  was  transferred 
by  the  secretary  of  the  navy  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  sloop-of-war  Wasp,  mounting 
eighteen  twenty-four  pound  carronades ;  and 
was  despatched,  in  the  spring  of  1812,  with 
communications  from  our  government  to  its 
functionaries  at  the  courts  of  St.  Cloud  and  St.  James.  Before 
he  returned  from  this  voyage,  war  had  been  declared  by  the 
United  States  against  Great  Britain.  Captain  Jones  refitted 
his  ship  with  all  possible  despatch,  and  repaired  to  sea  on  a 
cruise,  in  which  he  met  with  no  other  luck  than  the  capture  of 
an  inconsiderable  prize. 


632  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

He  sailed  from  the  port  of  Philadelphia  on  the  13th  of 
October,  1812,  with  a  gallant  set  of  officers,  and  a  high-spirited 
and  confident  crew.  On  the  18th  of  the  same  month,  the 
Wasp  encountered  a  heavy  gale,  during  which  she  lost  her  jib- 
boom  and  two  valuable  seamen.  On  the  following  night,  being 
a  bright  moonlight,  a  seaman  on  the  look-out  discovered  five 
strange  sail,  steering  eastward.  The  Wasp  hauled  to  the  wind- 
ward and  closely  watched  the  movements  of  these  vessels  until 
daylight  next  morning,  being  the  18th,  when  it  was  found 
that  they  were  six  large  merchant  vessels  under  convoy  of  a 
sloop-of-war.  The  former  were  well  manned,  two  of  them 
mounting  sixteen  guns  each.  Notwithstanding  the  apparent 
disparity  of  force,  Captain  Jones  determined  to  hazard  an  at- 
tack, and,  as  the  weather  was  boisterous,  and  the  swell  of  the 
sea  unusually  high,  he  ordered  down  top-gallant  yards,  closely 
reefed  the  topsails,  and  prepared  for  action.  The  convoy  sailed 
ahead  and  lay  to,  five  or  six  miles  distant,  while  the  sloop-of- 
war,  with  Spanish  colours  flying,  remained  under  easy  sail,  the 
Wasp  coming  down  to  windward  on  her  larboard  side,  within 
pistol-shot,  displaying  the  American  ensign  and  pendant.  Upon 
the  enemy's  being  hailed,  he  hauled  down  the  Spanish  flag, 
hoisted  the  British  ensign,  and  opened  a  broadside  of  cannon 
and  musketry.  The  fire  was  promptly  returned  by  the  Wasp, 
the  vessels  gradually  neared  each  other,  and  each  maintained 
the  combat  with  great  animation,  the  English  vessel  firing  with 
most  rapidity,  but,  as  the  result  proved,  with  no  great  precision. 
In  a  few  minutes  after  the  commencement  of  the  action,  the 
main-topmast  of  the  Wasp  was  shot  away,  and,  falling  on  the 
topsail  yard,  across  the  larboard  fore  and  foretop-sail  braces, 
caused  the  head  yards  to  be  unmanageable  during  the  conti- 
nuance of  the  action.  In  two  or  three  minutes  more,  the  gaft 
and  mizzen-top-gallant  sail  were  shot  away.  Each  vessel  con- 
tinued in  the  position  in  which  the  action  commenced,  and  main- 
tained a  close  and  spirited  fire.  Captain  Jones  directed  his 
officers  not  to  fire  except  when  the  vessel  rolled  downwards,  so 
that  the  shot  was  either  poured  on  the  enemy's  deck  or  below 
it,  while  the  English  fired  as  soon  as  they  had  loaded,  without 
regard  to  the  position  of  their  vessel,  and  thus  their  balls  were 
either  thrown  away  or  passed  through  the  rigging.  The  Wasp 
now  passed  ahead  of  the  enemy,  raked  her,  and  resumed  her 


CAPTURE   OF   THE   FROLIC. 


633 


WASP     AND     FROLIC. 


original  position.  It  was  now  obvious  that  the  Wasp  had 
greatly  the  advantage  in  the  combat,  and  Captain  Jones 
thought  the  contest  might  be  speedily  decided  by  boarding,  but 
hesitated  because  the  roughness  of  the  sea  might  endanger  the 
safety  of  both  vessels  if  brought  in  contact.  As,  however,  the 
braces  and  rigging  of  the  "Wasp  were  so  injured  by  the  shot  of 
the  enemy  that  he  was  fearful  his  masts,  being  unsupported, 
would  go  by  the  board,  and  that  the  enemy  might  escape,  he 
therefore  determined  at  all  hazards  to  board  and  thus  decide 
the  contest.  With  this  determination  he  Avore  ship,  run  athwart 
the  enemy's  bow,  so  that  the  jib-boom  came  in  between  the 
main  and  mizzen  rigging  of  the  Wasp.  The  enemy  being 
in  a  position  so  inviting  for  a  raking  broadside,  one  was 
promptly  ordered.  So  closely  in  contact  were  the  contending 
vessels,  that,  while  loading,  the  rammers  of  the  Wasp  struck 
against  the  sides  of  the  opposing  vessel,  so  that  two  of  the 
guns  of  the  former  entered  through  the  bow  of  the  ports  of  the 
latter  and  swept  the  whole  length  of  the  deck.  At  this  junc- 
ture, a  sprightly  and  gallant  seaman,  named  Jack  Lang,  who 
had  once  been  impressed  on  board  a  British  man-of-war,  jumped 
80 


634  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 

on  a  gun  with  his  cutlass,  and  was  about  to  leap  on  board  the 
enemy,  when  Captain  Jones  ordered  him  back,  wishing  to  give 
a  closing  broadside  before  boarding.  His  impetuosity,  however, 
could  not  be  restrained,  and,  observing  the  ardour  of  the  crew 
generally,  Lieutenants  Biddle  and  Booth  gallantly  led  them  on ; 
but,  to  their  great  surprise,  when  they  reached  the  enemy's 
deck  not  a  single  uninjured  individual  was  found  on  deck  ex- 
cept the  seaman  at  the  wheel  and  three  officers.  The  deck  was 
covered  with  the  dying  and  dead,  and  was  slippery  with  blood. 
When  Lieutenant  Biddle  reached  the  quarter-deck,  the  com- 
mander and  two  other  officers  threw  down  their  swords,  and 
made  an  inclination  of  their  bodies,  thus  affording  evidence 
that  they  had  surrendered. 

During  the  early  part  of  the  action,  the  ensign  of  the  enemy 
had  been  shot  down,  upon  which  a  British  seaman  carried  it 
aloft  again  and  nailed  it  to  the  mast.  In  this  state  it  continued 
floating,  they  not  being  able  to  lower  it, 'until  one  of  the  United 
States  officers  ascended  the  rigging  and  tore  it  from  its  attach- 
ments. In  forty-three  minutes  from  the  commencement  of  the 
action,  full  possession  was  taken  of  the  enemy,  which  proved 
to  be  his  Britannic  majesty's  sloop-of-war  Frolic,  commanded 
by  Captain  Whynyates. 

On  examining  the  berth-deck,  it  was  found  crowded  with  the 
dead  and  wounded,  there  being  but  an  inconsiderable  propor- 
tion of  the  crew  of  the  Frolic  which  had  escaped  unhurt.  Soon 
after  Lieutenant  Biddle  took  possession  of  the  enemy,  her 
masts  fell  by  the  board,  so  that  she  lay  a  complete  wreck.  The 
contest  being  now  terminated,  Captain  Jones  ordered  Dr.  New, 
the  assistant  surgeon  of  the  Wasp,  to  visit  the  wounded  enemy, 
and  to  carry  with  him  every  thing  on  board  which  could  in 
any  manner  contribute  to  their  comfort. 

The  force  of  the  Frolic  consisted  of  sixteen  thirty-two  pound 
carronades,  four  twelve-pounders  on  the  main-deck,  and  two 
twelve-pound  carronades.  She  was,  therefore,  superior  to  the 
Wasp,  by  four  twelve-pounders.  The  officers  of  the  Frolic 
stated  that  the  number  of  men  on  the  ship's  books  was  one 
hundred  and  ten ;  but,  as  boats  were  seen  plying  between  the 
Frolic  and  some  of  the  convoy  in  the  morning  before  the 
action,  it  was  believed  that  she  received  many  volunteers  in 
addition  to  her  regular  crew.     This  belief  was  strengthened  by 


CAPTURE   OF   THE   FROLIC.  635 

the  circumstance,  that  one  of  the  vessels  in  the  convoy  came 
alongside  the  Wasp  next  morning  after  her  capture,  and  asked 
assistance  to  reef  his  sails,  as  he  had  but  two  men  and  a  boy 
on  board.  It  was  intimated  that  he  had  thus  diminished  his 
crew  by  allowing  volunteers  to  go  on  board  the  Frolic. 

The  officers,  seamen,  marines,  and  boys  on  board  the  Wasp, 
numbered  one  hundred  and  thirty-five,  which,  from  the  best 
information  which  could  be  obtained,  was  less  in  number  than 
that  of  the  enemy.  Both  vessels,  however,  had  more  men  than 
was  essential  to  their  efficiency,  and  the  officers  of  the  Frolic 
candidly  acknowledged  that  they  had  more  men  than  they 
knew  what  to  do  with.  It  appears,  therefore,  that,  while  there 
was  an  equality  of  strength  in  the  crews,  there  was  an  ine- 
quality in  the  number  of  guns  and  weight  of  metal,  the  Frolic 
having  four  twelve-pounders  more  than  the  Wasp. 

The  exact  number  of  killed  and  wounded  on  board  the  Frolic 
could  not  be  ascertained  with  any  degree  of  precision  ;  but, 
from  the  admissions  of  the  British  officers,  it  was  supposed  that 
the  number  killed  was  about  thirty,  including  two  officers  ;  and 
of  those  wounded,  between  forty  and  fifty.  The  captain  and 
every  other  officer  on  board  were  more  or  less  severely  wounded. 
The  Wasp  sustained  a  loss  of  only  five  men  killed  and  fivo 
wounded. 

A  busy  scene  now  ensued,  in  disposing  of  the  dead,  taking 
care  of  the  wounded,  and  repairing  the  damages  which  the 
Wasp  sustained  during  the  conflict.  Lieutenant  Biddle  and 
a  portion  of  the  officers  and  crew  of  the  Wasp  were  similarly 
engaged  on  board  the  Frolic.  While  engaged  in  erecting  jury- 
masts  on  board  the  latter  vessel,  a  suspicious  sail  was  seen  to 
windward,  upon  which  Captain  Jones  directed  Lieutenant  Bid- 
die  to  shape  her  course  for  Charleston,  or  any  other  southern 
port  of  the  United  States,  while  the  Wasp  would  continue  her 
cruise. 

The  strange  sail  coming  down  rapidly,  both  vessels  prepared 
for  action,  but  soon  discovered,  to  the  mortification  of  the  vic- 
tors of  this  well-fought  action,  that  the  new  enemy  was  a 
seventy-four,  which  proved  to  be  the  Poictiers,  commanded  by 
Commodore  Beresford.  Firing  a  shot  over  the  Frolic,  she 
passed  her,  and  soon  overhauled  the  Wasp,  which,  in  her  crip- 
pled state,  was  unable  to  escape.     Both  vessels  were  thus  cap- 


636  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

tured  and  carried  into  Bermuda.  Captain  Jones  and  his 
officers  were  placed  on  parole  of  honour  at  St.  George's,  Ber- 
muda, and  were  treated  there  with  great  courtesy,  particularly 
by  the  officers  of  the  ninety-eighth  and  one  hundred  and  second 
regiments  of  British  infantry.  Dinners,  balls,  and  other  acts 
of  civility  were  tendered  with  a  cordiality  of  manner  which 
made  our  officers  almost  forget  their  misfortunes. 

After  remaining  in  St.  George's  a  few  weeks,  a  cartel  was 
prepared,  by  which  the  officers  and  crew  of  the  Wasp  were  con- 
veyed to  New  York.  On  the  return  of  Captain  Jones  to  the 
United  States,  he  was  everywhere  received  with  demonstrations 
of  the  highest  respect  and  admiration  for  the  skill  and  gallantry 
which  he  displayed  in  his  combat  with  the  enemy.  In  his  jour- 
ney to  Washington,  whither  he  was  ordered  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  he  received  brilliant  entertainments  in 
the  cities  through  which  he  passed. 

The  legislature  of  Delaware,  his  native  state,  gave  to  him 
a  vote  of  thanks  and  an  elegant  piece  of  plate,  with  appro- 
priate engravings.  On  motion  of  James  A.  Bayard,  of  Dela- 
ware, the  Congress  of  the  United  States  appropriated  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars,  as  a  compensation  to  Captain  Jones,  his 
officers,  and  crew,  for  the  loss  they  sustained  by  the  recapture 
of  the  Frolic.  They  also  voted  a  gold  medal  to  Captain  Jones, 
and  a  silver  medal  to  each  of  his  commissioned  officers. 

On  the  25th  of  October,  1812,  in  latitude  29°  N.,  longi- 
tude 29°  30'  W.,  Commodore  Decatur,  commanding  the  frigate 
United  States,  fell  in  with  his  Britannic  majesty's  ship  Mace- 
donian, mounting  forty-nine  carriage  guns,  the  odd  gun  shift- 
ing. She  was  a  frigate  of  the  largest  class,  two  years  old,  four 
months  out  of  dock,  and  reputed  one  of  the  best  sailers  in  the 
British  service.  The  action,  after  lasting  an  hour  and  a  half,  in 
consequence  of  the  enemy  being  to  windward,  and  having  the 
advantage  of  engaging  at  his  own  distance,  terminated  in  the 
capture  of  the  Macedonian.  The  British  ship  lost  her  mizen- 
mast,  fore  and  main-topmasts  and  mainyard,  and  was  much  cut 
up  in  her  hull.  The  damage  sustained  by  the  United  States 
was  not  so  much  as  to  render  her  return  into  port  necessary, 
and  had  Commodore  Decatur  not  deemed  it  important  to  see 
his  prize  in,  he  would  have  continued  the  cruise. 


3D 


CAPTURE  OF  THE  JAVA. 


639 


COMMODORE    BAINBRIDQE. 


CAPTURE  OF  THE  JAVA. 

HE  Constitution,  under  the  command  of 
Commodore  Bainbridge,  sailed  on 
the  26th  October,  and  arrived  off 
"V-  St.  Salvador  on  the  13th  Decem- 

||  ber.  On  the  29th,  in  latitude 
2:  13°  6'  south,  and  about  ten 
leagues  from  the  coast  of  Brazil, 
the  Constitution  fell  in  with  an 
enemy's  frigate,  the  Java,  bound  for  the  East  Indies,  with  a 
number  of  supernumerary  officers  and  seamen  for  the  Bombay 


610  INCIDENTS    OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 

station.  The  commodore,  finding  the  frigate  fairly  within 
his  reach,  prepared  with  alacrity  for  action.  The  stranger 
showed  English  colours,  and  bore  down,  with  the  intention  of 
raking  the  Constitution.  Bainbridge  avoided  this,  and  the 
enemy  having  hauled  down  colours,  and  left  flying  a  jack  only, 
the  commodore  gave  orders  to  fire  ahead  of  the  enemy  to  make 
him  show  full  colours.  This  was  returned  with  a  full  broadside, 
and  a  general  action  commenced,  both  ships  striving  to  rake 
and  to  avoid  being  raked. 

Soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  action,  Bainbridge  re- 
ceived a  ball  in  the  hip ;  and  a  few  minutes  later  a  shot  carried 
away  the  wheel,  and  drove  a  small  bolt  with  violence  into  his 
thigh.  These  injuries  did  not  induce  him  to  sit  down,  and  he 
continued  on  deck,  giving  orders  until  eleven  o'clock  at  night. 
The  action  lasted  an  hour  and  fifty-five  minutes,  when  the  enemy 
struck  her  flag,  and  the  American  commodore  sent  Lieutenant 
Parker  to  take  possession.  The  Java  was  commanded  by  Cap- 
tain Lambert,  a  distinguished  officer,  who  was  mortally  wounded, 
and  died  a  few  days  after  the  battle.  The  enemy's  loss  was  not 
less  than  sixty  killed  and  one  hundred  wounded.  The  Consti- 
tution lost  nine  killed  and  twenty-five  wounded.  The  two  ves- 
sels presented  a  striking  contrast  in  appearance,  at  the  close  of 
the  action :  the  Constitution  "  actually  coming  out  of  the  battle 
as  she  had  gone  into  it,  with  royal-yards  across,  and  every  spar, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  in  its  place,"  though  some  of 
them  were  considerably  injured;  while  the  Java  lay  upon  the 
water  an  unmanageable  wreck,  with  every  spar  shot  away,  and 
but  a  few  stumps  left  standing.  Bainbridge  displayed  great 
kindness  in  the  treatment  of  his  prisoners,  and  having  destroyed 
his  prize,  he  landed  his  captives  at  St.  Salvador,  on  parole  of 
honour  not  to  engage  in  hostilities  against  the  United  States, 
until  exchanged. 

The  Constitution  soon  returned  home  for  repairs,  and  Bain- 
bridge entered  Boston  harbour  in  triumph. 


_Uia*~ 


81 


3d2 


MASSACRE   OF    THE    RIVER   RAISIN. 


643 


GENERAL    WINCHESTER. 


MASSACRE  OF  THE  RIVER  RAISIN,  AND 
SIEGE  OF  FORT  MEIGS. 


HE  people  of  the  Western  States  were 
naturally  anxious  to  recover  the  posts 
which  had  been  lost  by  General  Hull 
on  the  north-western  frontier ;  and 
thus  to  relieve  themselves  from  the 
danger  of  incursions  from  the  British 
and  Indians  in  that  region.  During 
the  autumn  of  1812,  General  Harrison, 
who  had  command  of  the  army  in  that  quarter,  was  principally 
occupied  in  collecting  and  organizing  his  forces  preparatory  to 
a  winter  campaign.  Nothing  of  importance  was  effected,  as 
we  have  already  had  occasion  to  remark,  before  the  winter  set  in. 
General  Winchester,  with  a  detachment  of  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  was  sent  forward  in  advance  of  the  main  body ; 


644  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

and  while  General  Harrison  was  collecting  his  forces  at  San- 
dusky, with  a  view  to  join  Winchester,  and  advance  upon  Mai- 
den and  Detroit,  the  latter  officer  received  a  pressing  call  from 
the  inhabitants  of  Frenchtown,  on  the  river  Raisin,  for  protection 
against  the  British  and  Indians  assembled  at  Maiden.  Ad- 
vancing within  three  miles  of  the  town,  on  the  17th  of  January, 
he  learned  that  the  enemy  had  already  taken  possession  of  it. 
He  attacked  them  on  the  18th,  and  drove  them  from  their  po- 
sition with  considerable  slaughter.  On  the  20th,  he  advanced 
to  within  twenty  miles  of  Maiden,  where  a  British  force  much 
stronger  than  his  own  was  stationed. 

General  Winchester's  desire  to  afford  a  relief  to  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Frenchtown  had  thus  brought  his  detachment  into  a 
situation  of  no  little  peril.  The  expedition  in  which  he  was  en- 
gaged had  been  undertaken  without  the  knowledge  of  General 
Harrison,  who,  on  learning  his  advance,  sent  for  reinforcements, 
and  pushed  forward  with  the  main  body  in  hopes  of  affording 
him  relief. 

The  British  were  not  slow  to  perceive  their  advantage.  On 
the  evening  of  the  21st  of  January,  Colonel  Proctor  left  Maiden 
with  six  hundred  British  and  Canadian  troops,  and  one  thousand 
Indians,  under  the  command  of  their  chiefs,  Splitlog  and  Round- 
head, and  at  daybreak  of  the  22d,  commenced  a  furious  attack 
upon  the  Americans.  General  Winchester's  left  wing,  amounting 
to  six  hundred  men,  was  protected  by  pickets  ;  the  right  wing, 
one  hundred  und  fifty  in  number,  being  exposed,  was  speedily 
defeated,  and  nearly  the  whole  massacred  by  the  Indians,  who 
cut  off  their  retreat.  A  detachment  of  one  hundred  sent  out  to 
their  relief  shared  the  same  fate.  General  Winchester  and  Col- 
onel Lewis,  in  attempting  to  rally  them,  were  made  prisoners. 
The  left  wing  sustained  the  unequal  contest  with  undaunted 
valour  until  eleven  o'clock,  when  General  Winchester  capitu- 
lated for  them,  stipulating  for  their  protection  from  the  fury  of 
the  Indians.  This  engagement  was  violated  on  the  next  day, 
when  a  large  body  of  Indians  fell  upon  the  wounded,  toma- 
hawked and  scalped  them,  and,  setting  fire  to  the  houses,  con- 
sumed the  dead  and  the  dying  in  one  undistinguished  confla- 
gration. In  permitting  this  massacre,  Proctor  seems  to  have 
counted  on  daunting  the  courage  of  the  Americans.  But  the 
effect  was  directly  the  reverse  of  what  was  intended.     New 


MASSACRE   OF   THE   RIVER   RAISIN. 


645 


MASSACRE    07    THE    KIVER    RAISIN. 


volunteers,  fired  by  these  barbarities,  flocked  to  the  standard  of 
their  country,  and  were  eventually  successful  in  avenging  their 
murdered  fellow  citizens. 

General  Harrison,  having  received  considerable  reinforce- 
ments from  Kentucky  and  Ohio,  advanced  to  the  rapids  of  the 
Miami,  and  there  erected  a  fort  which  he  called  Fort  Meigs,  in 
honour  of  the  governor  of  Ohio.  This  position  had  been  se- 
lected as  a  suitable  post  for  receiving  reinforcements  and  sup- 
plies from  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  protecting  the  borders  of  Lake 
Erie,  and  concentrating  the  forces  intended  for  the  recapture 
of  Detroit,  and  the  invasion  of  Canada. 

On  the  26th  of  April,  General  Proctor,  with  two  thousand 
regulars,  militia,  and  Indians,  from  Maiden,  appeared  on  the 
bank  of  the  river  opposite  the  fort,  and,  erecting  batteries  on  an 
eminence,  commenced  a  regular  siege.  The  Indians  crossed  the 
river  on  the  27th,  and  established  themselves  in  the  rear  of  the 
American  lines.  A  heavy  fire  of  shot  and  shells  was  poured 
in  upon  the  fort  for  several  days,  and  on  the  3d  of  May,  a  bat- 
tery was  erected  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  within  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  yards  of  the  American  lines. 

General  Harrison  now  received  a  summons  to  surrender, 
which  was  gallantly  refused.     On  the  5th  of  May,  General  Clay, 


646 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


GENERAL    HARRISON. 


with  twelve  hundred  Kentuckians,  advanced  to  the  relief  of 
Fort  Meigs,  and  by  a  spirited  attack,  succeeded  in  driving  the 
besiegers  from  their  works.  Eight  hundred  of  his  troops  hav- 
ing subsequently  dispersed  in  the  woods,  in  pursuit  of  the  In- 
dians, were  drawn  into  an  ambuscade,  and  compelled  to  sur- 
render. They  were  saved  from  massacre  only  by  the  decisive 
interference  of  the  Indian  chief  Tecumseh,  who  humanely  re- 
strained his  followers  from  their  usual  atrocities.  Of  the  eight 
hundred  men  only  one  hundred  and  fifty  escaped,  the  remainder 
being  slain  or  captured.  General  Proctor,  seeing  no  prospect 
of  taking  the  fort,  and  being  deserted  by  his  Indian  allies,  who 
were  heartily  weary  of  the  siege,  abandoned  his  position  on  the 
9th  of  May,  and  returned  to  Maiden.  General  Harrison,  having 
repaired  the  fort,  left  it  under  the  command  of  General  Clay, 
and  returned  to  Ohio  for  reinforcements.  Nothing  further  was 
attempted  in  this  quarter  until  a  naval  force  was  ready  for  ac- 
tion on  Lake  Erie. 


CAPTURE   OF  YORK. 


647 


COMMODORE    CHADNCEY. 


CAPTURE   OF  YORK,   AND  DEFENCE  OF 
SACKETTS  HARBOUR. 


3HE   principal  object  of 
the  campaign  of  1813, 
on    the  Canadian    bor- 
der, was  the  capture  of 
Montreal.         To    effect 
this,  it  was  essential  to  gain  the 
command  of  Lake  Ontario.     Sack- 
ett's  Harbour,  on  the  east  end  of 
the  lake,  near  its  outlet,  was  se- 
lected as  a  naval  depot ;  and  Com- 
modore Chauncey  had  been  occu- 
pied since  the  month  of  October,  1812,  in  building  and  equip- 


648 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


sackett's  harbour. 


ping  a  squadron  sufficiently  powerful  to  cope  with  that  of  the 
enemy,  which  consisted  of  six  vessels,  mounting  in  all  eighty 
guns.  In  this  he  was  successful ;  and  having  made  several  cap- 
tures in  the  autumn  of  1812,  he  was  enabled,  in  the  spring  of 
the  next  year,  to  acquire  the  complete  ascendency  on  the  lake, 
confining  every  British  ship  to  the  harbour  of  Kingston. 

General  Dearborn  had  now  under  his  command  a  respectable 
force  of  six  thousand  men,  composing  the  army  of  the  north ; 
and  as  Montreal  was  in  a  comparatively  defenceless  state,  and 
could  receive  no  reinforcements  until  June,  it  was  his  proper 
policy  to  have  made  an  immediate  descent  upon  that  city.  Unfor- 
tunately his  exertions  were  directed  to  a  much  less  important 
object.  On  the  28d  of  April,  he  embarked  at  Sackett's  Harbour 
with  sixteen  hundred  men,  on  an  expedition  against  York,  the 
capital  of  Upper  Canada,  situated  at  the  head  of  Lake  Ontario. 
On  the  27th  he  arrived  at  his  destination,  and  immediately  com- 
menced a  disembarkation.  Remaining  on  board  the  fleet,  he 
intrusted  the  command  to  General  Pike,  who  succeeded  in 
landing,  though  opposed  by  a  superior  force  of  the  enemy,  who, 
after  a  severe  action,  were  driven  to  their  fortifications.  The 
remainder  of  the  forces  having  effected  a  landing,  the  whole 
army  advanced  to  the  assault,  carried  the  first  battery,  and  was 


CAPTURE   OF   YORK. 


649 


GENERAL    PIKE. 


approaching  the  main  works,  when  a  magazine  of  the  British, 
prepared  for  the  purpose,  blew  up  with  a  tremendous  explosion, 
destroying  one  hundred  of  the  assailants.  General  Pike  was 
mortally  wounded  by  a  stone  which  was  thrown  up  by  the  ex- 
plosion and  struck  him  on  the  breast. 

He  was  immediately  conveyed  on  board  the  commodore's  ship, 
and  soon  expired.  The  troops  paused  a  few  moments  at  this 
unexpected  catastrophe,  but  soon  pressed  forward  and  gained 
the  possession  of  the  town.  The  government  hall  was  burned, 
contrary  to  the  orders  of  the  American  general.  The  British 
lost  one  hundred  killed,  and  six  hundred  wounded  and  prisoners. 
The  Americans,  three  hundred  and  twenty  killed  and  wounded. 
The  object  of  the  expedition  being  attained,  the  fleet  pro- 
ceeded to  Niagara,  landed  the  troops,  and  returned  to  Sackett's 
Harbour. 

On  embarking  for  York,  General  Dearborn  had  left  Sackett's 
82  3  E 


050 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


Harbour  in  rather  a  defenceless  state.  It  was  consequently 
attacked  on  the  29th  of  May,  by  the  combined  land  and  naval 
forces  of  the  British,  under  Sir  George  Prevost  and  Sir  James 
Yeo.  General  Brown,  of  the  New  York  militia,  had  the  chief 
command  at  the  harbour.  He  detached  Colonel  Mills,  with  the 
militia  and  Albany  volunteers,  to  oppose  the  enemy's  landing. 
On  their  approach,  the  militia  fired  without  orders,  and  too  soon 
to  produce  any  effect,  and  then  fled.  Colonel  Mills  was  slain  in 
attempting  to  rally  them.  General  Brown  succeeded  in  rallying 
about  one  hundred,  and  fell  upon  the  enemy's  rear.  The  British 
advanced  towards  the  village,  and  encountering  Colonel  Backus, 
with  the  regular  troops  and  a  few  militia,  after  a  severe  action 
were  repulsed  and  driven  to  their  boats.  Lieutenant  Chauncey, 
who  had  been  ordered  to  set  fire  to  the  store-house|  and  bar- 
racks in  case  of  defeat,  anticipated  that  result,  and  thus  caused 
the  loss  of  the  supplies  which  were  essential  to  the  success  of 
the  campaign. 


DEATH    OP    GENERAL    PIKE. 


DEFENCE  OF  FORT  STEPHENSON. 


G51 


COLONEL  CROGHAN. 


DEFENCE  OF  FORT  STEPHENSON. 


on  the 
siegers 


APTAIN  CROGHAN  com- 
manded,  a  short  time,  Fort 
Defiance,  on  the  Miami  of 
the  lakes;  but  after  the 
defeat  of  General  Winches- 
ter, he  was  ordered  to  Fort  Meigs,  upon 
which  the  enemy  designed  an  attack. 
Here  General  Harrison  commanded  in 
person.  Every  disposition,  both  for 
attack  and  defence,  was  made  by  the 
conflicting  parties.  The  siege  began 
28th  of  April,  and  on  the  9th  of  May  following  the  be- 
commenced  their  retreat,  covered  with  disgrace.     Here 


652  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

Croghan  particularly  signalized  himself  with  his  corps,  by  seve- 
ral handsome  and  brilliant  charges  on  the  enemy.  For  his  con- 
duct on  this  occasion,  he  received  the  particular  notice  of  the 
commanding  general ;  and  was  shortly  after  advanced  to  a  ma- 
jority, and  was  stationed  with  his  battalion  at  Upper  Sandusky. 
From  this  he  was  ordered  to  Fort  Stephenson,  twenty  miles 
above  the  mouth  of  Sandusky  river,  with  orders  from  General 
Harrison  to  destroy  the  stores  and  abandon  the  fort,  if  the 
enemy  made  his  appearance.  Learning  that  the  enemy  de- 
signed to  attack  him,  he  disobeyed  his  orders,  and  immortalized 
his  fame.  He  laboured  day  and  night  to  place  the  fort  in  a 
state  of  defence. 

The  necessity  of  cutting  a  ditch  round  the  fort  immediately 
presented  itself  to  him.  This  was  done  ;  but  in  order  to  render 
the  enemy's  plans  abortive,  should  they  even  succeed  in  leaping 
the  ditch,  which  was  nine  feet  wide,  and  six  deep,  he  had  large 
logs  placed  on  the  top  of  the  fort,  and  so  adjusted  that  an  in- 
considerable weight  would  cause  them  to  fall  from  their  position, 
and  crush  to  death  all  who  might  be  situated  below. 

A  short  time  before  the  action  he  wrote  the  following  con- 
cise and  impressive  letter  to  a  friend.  "  The  enemy  are  not 
far  distant :  I  expect  an  attack — I  will  defend  this  post  to  the 
last  extremity.  I  have  just  sent  away  the  women  and  children, 
that  I  may  be  able  to  act  without  encumbrance.  Be  satisfied : 
I  hope  to  do  my  duty.  The  example  set  me  by  my  revolution- 
ary kindred  is  before  me — let  me  die  rather  than  prove  un- 
worthy of  their  name." 

On  the  first  of  August,  General  Proctor  made  his  appearance 
before  the  fort.  His  troops  consisted  of  500  regulars,  and 
about  700  Indians  of  the  most  ferocious  kind.  There  were  but 
133  effective  men  in  the  garrison,  and  the  works  covered  one 
acre  of  ground.  The  pickets  were  about  ten  feet  high,  sur- 
rounded by  a  ditch,  with  a  block-house  at  each  angle  of  the 
fort,  one  of  which  contained  a  six-pounder.  This  was  the  exact 
state  of  the  post  at  the  time  the  enemy  appeared.  The  first 
movement  made  by  the  enemy  was  to  make  such  a  disposition 
of  his  forces  as  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the  garrison,  if  they 
should  be  disposed  to  attempt  it.  He  then  sent  Colonel  Elliot 
with  a  flag,  to  demand  the  surrender  of  the  fort.  He  was  met 
by  Ensign  Shipp.     The  British  officer  observed  that  General 


DEFENCE  OF  FORT  STEPHENSON.  653 

Froctor  had  a  number  of  cannon,  a  large  body  of  regular  troops, 
and  so  many  Indians,  whom  it  was  impossible  to  control,  that 
if  the  fort  was  taken,  as  it  must  be,  the  whole  of  the  garrison 
would  be  massacred.  Shipp  answered,  that  it  was  the  deter- 
mination of  Major  Croghan,  his  officers,  and  men,  to  defend  the 
garrison  or  be  buried  in  it,  and  that  they  might  do  their  best. 
Colonel  Elliott  addressed  Mr.  Shipp  again — "  You  are  a  fine 
young  man — I  pity  your  situation — for  God's  sake  surrender, 
and  prevent  the  dreadful  slaughter  that  must  follow  resist- 
ance." Shipp  turned  from  him  with  indignation,  and  was 
immediately  taken  hold  of  by  an  Indian,  who  attempted  to 
wrest  his  sword  from  him.  Major  Croghan,  observing  what 
passed,  called  to  Shipp  to  come  into  the  fort,  which  was  instantly 
obeyed,  and  the  action  commenced.  The  firing  began  from 
the  gun-boats  in  the  rear,  and  was  kept  up  during  the  night. 

At  an  early  hour  the  next  morning,  three  six-pounders, 
which  had  been  planted  during  the  night  within  two  hundred 
and  fifty  yards  of  the  pickets,  began  to  play  upon  the  fort,  but 
with  little  effect.  About  four,  p.  m.,  all  the  enemy's  guns  were 
concentrated  against  the  north-western  angle  of  the  fort,  for  the 
purpose  of  making  a  breach.  To  counteract  the  effect  of  their 
fire,  Major  Croghan  caused  that  point  to  be  strengthened  by 
means  of  bags  of  flour,  sand,  and  other  materials,  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  picketing  sustained  little  or  no  injury.  But 
the  enemy,  supposing  that  their  fire  had  sufficiently  shattered 
the  pickets,  advanced,  to  the  number  of  five  hundred,  to  storm 
the  place,  at  the  same  time  making  two  feints  on  different 
points. 

The  column  which  advanced  against  the  north-western  angle 
was  so  completely  enveloped  in  smoke,  as  not  to  be  discovered 
until  it  had  approached  within  eighteen  or  twenty  paces  of  the 
lines,  but  the  men  being  all  at  their  posts,  and  ready  to  receive 
it,  commenced  so  heavy  and  galling  a  fire  as  to  throw  the 
column  into  confusion ;  but  being  quickly  rallied,  Lieutenant- 
colonel  Short,  the  leader  of  the  column,  exclaimed,  "  Come  on, 

my  brave  fellows,  we  will  give  these  d d  Yankee  rascals  no 

quarters,"  and  immediately  leaped  into  the  ditch,  followed  by 
his  troops.  As  soon  as  the  ditch  was  entirely  filled  by  the  as- 
sailants, Major  Croghan  ordered  the  six-pounder,  which  had 
been  masked  in  the  block-house,  to  be  fired.     It  had  been  loaded 

3e2 

X 


051 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


DEFENCE  OF  FORT  STEPHENSON. 


with  a  double  charge  of  musket  balls  and  slugs.  The  piece 
completely  raked  the  ditch,  from  end  to  end.  The  first  fire 
levelled  the  one  half  in  death  ;  the  second  or  third  either  killed 
or  wounded  every  one  except  eleven,  who  were  covered  by  the 
dead  bodies.  At  the  same  time,  the  fire  of  small  arms  was  so 
incessant  and  destructive,  that  it  was  in  vain  the  British  officers 
exerted  themselves  to  lead  on  the  balance  of  the  column  ;  it 
retired  in  disorder  under  a  shower  of  shot,  and  sought  safety 
in  an  adjoining  wood.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  in  killed  was 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty,  besides  a  considerable  number  of 
their  allies.  The  Americans  had  but  one  killed  and  seven 
slightly  wounded.  Early  in  the  morning  of  the  third,  the  ene- 
my retreated  down  the  river,  after  having  abandoned  consider- 
able baggage. 

The  garrison  was  composed  of  regulars,  all  Kentuckians  ;  a 
finer  company  of  men  was  not  to  be  found  in  the  United  States, 
perhaps  not  in  the  world. 

Notwithstanding  his  disobedience  of  orders,  for  the  successful 
defence  of  this  post,  Major  Croghan  was  raised  to  the  rank  of 
lieutenant-colonel. 


COMMODORE   PERRY'S   VICTORY  ON  LAKE   ERIE. 


655 


COMMODORE     PERRY. 


COMMODORE  PERRY'S   VICTORY   ON   LAKE 
ERIE.— BATTLE  OF  THE  THAMES. 


ERRY  took  charge  of  the 
flotilla  of  gun-boats  station- 
ed in  the  harbour  of  New 
York,  early  in  1812,  with 
the  rank  of  master-com- 
mandant. Here  he  remain- 
ed about  a  year,  disciplining 
his  crews.  As  war  had  be- 
gun its  ravages  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  he  sought  a  more  active 
sphere ;  and,  at  his  own  request,  he  was  transferred  to  the 
service  on  the  lakes. 


656 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


BUILDING    OP     THE     FLEET     ON     LAKE     ERIE. 


In  pursuance  of  this  disposition  of  his  services,  he  repaired 
with  a  reinforcement  of  seamen  to  Sackett's  Harbour,  on  Lake 
Ontario,  to  act  under  Commodore  Chauncey.  The  transporta- 
tion of  the  seamen  from  the  sea-board  to  the  harbour,  from  its 
novelty  to  the  sons  of  Neptune,  afforded  them  the  highest 
amusement,  particularly  as  it  was  a  "  land-cruise"  in  the  depth 
of  winter. 

After  remaining  at  Sackett's  Harbour  some  time,  Commodore 
Chauncey  despatched  Perry  to  take  charge  of  the  squadron 
then  fitted  and  fitting  out  on  Lake  Erie,  and  to  hasten  their 
equipments.  At  this  time,  the  British  fleet  on  that  lake  was 
commanded  by  Captain  Barclay,  an  officer  of  high  standing, 
rank,  and  skill,  who  had  seen  much  service,  and  whose  force 
was  of  superior  strength  to  the  American  squadron. 

Perry  pursued  his  object  unmolested  by  the  enemy,  who  was 
continually  hovering  about  the  harbour.  Having  equipped  and 
manned  his  vessels,  he  buoyed  them  over  the  bar,  on  which  was 
only  five  feet  of  water,  at  the  harbour's  mouth  of  the  port  of 
Erie,  on  the  4th  of  August,  1813.  The  enemy  were  peaceable 
spectators  of  the  scene.  The  next  day  he  sailed  in  pursuit  of 
them,  and  returned  to  port  on  the  8th,  without  accomplishing 
his  object.  The  day  following  he  was  reinforced  by  several 
officers,  and  eighty  seamen  under  Lieutenant  Elliot,  which  gave 


COMMODORE   TERRY'S   VICTORY   ON  LAKE   ERIE.  657 

his  squadron  a  full  complement.  He  again  sailed  on  the  12th, 
on  a  cruise,  and  on  the  15th  arrived  at  Sandusky  Bay,  in  front 
of  the  encampment  of  the  American  army,  commanded  by 
General  Harrison.  Thence  he  proceeded  to  cruise  off  Maiden, 
and  the  British  commander  thought  proper  to  hug  his  force,  for 
protection,  close  under  the  guns  of  the  British  fortifications. 
The  inhabitants  were  filled  with  terror  and  consternation  at  the 
sight  of  the  American  squadron,  and  the  astonished  Indian 
allies  of  the  British  crown  urged  the  British  squadron  to  put  to 
sea,  and  give  battle.  They,  however,  felt  themselves  not  dis- 
posed to  risk  an  engagement ;  and  Perry  returned  to  Sanduskv 
Bay. 

Nothing  of  moment  happened  until  the  morning  of  the  10th 
of  September.  The  American  squadron  was  then  lying  at 
anchor  at  Put-in-Bay,  and  consisted  of  brigs  Lawrence,  Commo- 
dore Perry,  twenty  guns  ;  Niagara,  Captain  Elliot,  twenty  guns  ; 
Caledonia,  Purser  McGrath,  three  guns ;  schooners  Ariel,  Lieut. 
Packet,  four  guns ;  Scorpion,  Sailing-master  Champlin,  two 
guns  ;  Somers,  Almy,  two  guns  and  two  swivels  ;  Tigress,  Lieu- 
tenant Conklin,  one  gun  ;  Porcupine,  Midshipman  G.  Senat, 
one  gun  ;  sloop  Trippe,  Lieutenant  Smith,  one  gun ;  in  all, 
fifty-four  guns. 

At  sunrise  they  discovered  the  enemy,  and  immediately  got 
under  way  and  stood  for  him,  with  a  light  wind  at  south-west, 
The  British  force  consisted  of  ship  Detroit,  nineteen  guns,  one 
on  pivot  and  two  howitzers  ;  Queen  Charlotte,  seventeen  guns, 
one  on  pivot ;  schooner  Lady  Prevost,  thirteen  guns,  one  on 
pivot ;  brig  Hunter,  ten  guns ;  sloop  Little  Belt,  three  guns ; 
schooner  Chippeway,  one  gun,  two  swivels ;  in  all,  sixty-three 
guns. 

At  ten,  A.  M.,  the  wind  hauled  to  the  south-east,  and  brought 
our  squadron  to  windward.  Commodore  Perry  then  hoisted  his 
union  jack,  having  for  a  motto  the  dying  words  of  the  valiant 
Lawrence,  "  Don't  give  up  the  ship  !"  It  was  received  with 
repeated  cheerings  by  the  officers  and  crews.  And  now,  having 
formed  his  line,  he  bore  for  the  enemy ;  who  likewise  cleared 
for  action,  and  hauled  up  his  courses.  As  the  hostile  squadrons 
approached  each  other,  suddenly  a  bugle  was  sounded  from  on 
board  the  enemy's  ship  Detroit,  and  loud  huzzas  immediately 
burst  forth  from  all  their  crews. 


G58  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

As  soon  as  the  Lawrence  came  within  the  reach  of  the  ene- 
my's long  guns,  they  opened  a  heavy  fire  upon  her,  which,  from 
the  shortness  of  her  guns,  she  was  unable  to  return.  Perry, 
without  waiting  for  his  schooners,  kept  on  his  course,  which 
induced  the  enemy  to  suppose  it  was  his  intention  to  hoard.  In 
a  few  minutes,  having  gained  a  nearer  position,  he  opened  his 
fire.  The  length  of  the  enemy's  guns,  however,  gave  them 
greatly  the  advantage,  and  the  Lawrence  was  excessively  cut 
up,  without  being  able  to  do  any  great  damage  in  return.  Their 
shot  pierced  her  sides  in  all  directions,  killing  the  men  on  the 
berth-deck  and  in  the  steerage,  where  they  had  been  taken 
down  to  be  dressed.  One  shot  had  nearly  produced  a  fatal 
explosion  ;  passing  through  the  light  room,  it  knocked  the  snuff 
of  the  candle  into  the  magazine ;  fortunately  the  gunner  hap- 
pened to  see  it,  and  had  the  presence  of  mind  to  extinguish  it 
immediately  with  his  hand. 

Their  heaviest  fire  was  directed  at  the  Lawrence,  and  Perry, 
finding  the  hazard  of  his  situation,  made  sail,  and  directed  the 
other  vessels  to  follow,  for  the  purpose  of  closing  with  the  foe. 
The  tremendous  fire,  however,  to  which  he  was  exposed,  soon 
cut  away  every  brace  and  bowline,  and  the  Lawrence  became 
unmanageable. 

Even  in  this  disastrous  plight,  she  sustained  the  action  for 
upwards  of  two  hours,  within  canister  distance,  though  for  a 
great  part  of  the  time  the  Lawrence  could  not  get  more 
than  three  guns  to  bear  upon  her  antagonist.  It  was  ad- 
mirable to  behold  the  perfect  order  and  regularity  that  pre- 
vailed among  her  valiant  and  devoted  crew,  throughout  this 
scene  of  horror.  No  trepidation,  no  confusion  occurred,  even 
for  an  instant ;  as  fast  as  the  men  were  wounded,  they  were 
carried  below,  and  others  stept  into  their  places ;  the  dead  re- 
mained where  they  fell,  until  after  the  action.  At  this  junc- 
ture, the  fortune  of  the  battle  trembled  on  a  point,  and  the 
enemy  believed  the  day  their  own.  The  Lawrence  was  reduced 
to  a  mere  wreck;  her  decks  were  streaming  with  blood,  and 
covered  with  mangled  limbs,  and  the  bodies  of  the  slain  ;  nearly 
the  whole  of  her  crew  were  either  killed  or  wounded  ;  her  guns 
were  dismounted,  and  the  commodore  and  his  officers  helped  to 
work  the  last  gun  that  was  capable  of  being  used. 

Finding  the  Lawrence  was  incapable  of  further  service,  he 


COMMODORE   PERRY'S   VICTORY   ON  LAKE   ERIE.  659 

gave  his  vessel  in  charge  to  Lieutenant  Yarnall,  who  had  already 
distinguished  himself  by  his  bravery,  and  hauled  down  his 
union,  bearing  the  motto  of  Lawrence,  and  taking  it  under  his 
arm,  ordered  it  to  be  put  on  board  of  the  Niagara,  which  was 
then  in  close  engagement.  In  leaving  the  Lawrence,  he  gave 
his  pilot  choice,  either  to  remain  on  board  or  accompany  him ; 
the  pilot  replied,  "He'd  stick  by  him  to  the  last,"  and  jumped 
into  the  boat.  Perry  went  off  from  the  ship  standing  up  in  the 
stern  of  the  boat,  until  the  crew  absolutely  pulled  him  down 
among  them.  Broadsides  were  levelled  at  him,  and  small  arms 
discharged  by  the  enemy,  two  of  whose  vessels  were  within 
musket-shot,  and  a  third  one  nearer.  His  shipmates  who  re- 
mained behind  stood  watching  him  in  anxiety ;  the  balls  struck 
around  him  and  flew  over  his  head  in  every  direction  ;  but  the 
same  special  Providence  that  seems  to  have  watched  over  the 
youthful  hero  throughout  this  desperate  battle,  conducted  him 
safely  through  a  shower  of  shot,  and  they  beheld  with  transport 
his  flag  hoisted  at  the  masthead  of  the  Niagara.  No  sooner  was 
he  on  board,  than  Captain  Elliot  volunteered  to  put  off  in  a 
boat,  and  bring  into  action  the  schooners  which  had  been  kept 
astern  by  light  wind ;  the  offer  was  accepted,  and  Elliot  left  the 
Niagara  to  put  it  in  execution. 

About  this  time  the  flag  of  the  Lawrence  came  down.  The 
event  was  unavoidable  ;  she  had  sustained  the  whole  fury  of  the 
enemy,  and  was  rendered  incapable  of  defence :  further  show 
of  resistance  would  have  proved  but  a  most  useless  and  cruel 
carnage  among  the  relics  of  her  brave  and  mangled  crew.  The 
enemy,  however,  were  not  able  to  take  possession  of  her,  and 
subsequent  circumstances  enabled  her  again  to  hoist  her  flag. 

Commodore  Perry  now  made  signal  for  close  action,  and  the 
small  vessels  got  out  their  sweeps  and  made  all  sail.  Finding 
that  the  Niagara  was  but  little  injured,  he  determined,  if  pos- 
sible, to  break  the  enemy's  line.  He  accordingly  bore  up  and 
passed  ahead  of  the  two  ships  and  brig,  giving  them  a  raking 
fire  from  his  starboard  guns,  and  also  to  a  large  schooner  and 
sloop  from  his  larboard  side,  about  half  pistol-shot  distance. 
Having  passed  the  whole  squadron,  he  luffed  up  and  laid  his 
ship  alongside  of  the  British  commodore.  The  smaller  vessels, 
under  the  direction  of  Captain  Elliot,  having  in  the  mean  time 
got  within  grape  and  canister  distance,  and  keeping  up  a  well- 


6G0  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 

directed  fire,  the  whole  of  the  enemy  struck,  excepting  two 
small  vessels,  which  attempted  to  escape,  but  were  afterwards 
taken. 

The  engagement  lasted  about  three  hours,  and  never  was  vic- 
tory more  decisive  and  complete.  The  captured  squadron,  as 
has  been  shown,  exceeded  ours  in  weight  of  metal  and  number 
of  guns.  Their  crews  were  also  more  numerous ;  the  Ameri- 
cans were  a  motley  collection  of  some  good  seamen,  mixed  with 
soldiers,  volunteers,  and  boys,  and  many  were  on  the  sick  list. 
More  prisoners  were  taken  than  we  had  men  to  guard.  The 
loss  on  both  sides  was  severe.  Scarcely  any  of  the  Lawrence's 
crew  escaped  unhurt.  Among  those  slain  was  Lieutenant 
Brooks  of  the  marines,  a  gay  and  elegant  young  officer,  full  of 
spirit,  of  amiable  manners,  and  remarkable  for  his  personal 
beauty.  Lieutenant  Yarnall,  though  repeatedly  wounded,  re- 
fused to  quit  the  deck,  during  the  whole  of  the  action.  Com- 
modore Perry,  notwithstanding  that  he  was  continually  in  the 
most  exposed  situations  of  the  battle,  escaped  uninjured ;  he 
wore  an  ordinary  seaman's  dress,  which,  perhaps,  prevented 
him  from  being  picked  off  by  the  enemy's  sharp-shooters.  He 
had  a  younger  brother  with  him  on  board  the  Lawrence,  as  mid- 
shipman, who  was  equally  fortunate  in  receiving  no  injury, 
though  his  shipmates  fell  all  around  him.  Two  Indian  chiefs 
had  been  stationed  in  the  tops  of  the  Detroit,  but  when  the  ac- 
tion became  warm,  so  panic-struck  were  they  with  the  terrors 
of  the  scene,  and  the  strange  perils  that  surrounded  them,  that 
they  fled  precipitately  to  the  hold  of  the  ship,  where  they  were 
found,  after  the  battle,  in  a  state  of  utter  consternation.  Thft 
bodies  of  several  other  Indians  were  said  to  have  been  found 
the  next  day  on  the  shores  of  the  lake,  supposed  to  have  been 
slain  during  the  engagement  and  thrown  overboard. 

The  loss  of  the  British  in  killed  and  wounded  was  estimated 
at  one  hundred  and  sixty,  and  that  of  the  Americans  at  one 
hundred  and  twenty-three.  On  board  the  British  fleet,  the 
captain  and  first  lieutenant  of  the  Queen  Charlotte  were  killed. 
Commodore  Barclay,  of  the  Lady  Prevost,  was  severely  wounded 
and  lost  his  hand.  He,  however,  did  himself  honour  by  the 
brave  and  obstinate  resistance  which  he  made.  He  was  a  fine- 
looking  officer,  then  about  thirty-six  years  of  age.  He  had  seen 
much  service,  having  been  desperately  wounded  in  the  battle  of 


3T 


\ 


COMMODORE   PERRY'S   VICTORY  ON  LAKE   ERIE.  663 

Trafalgar,  and  afterwards  losing  an  arm  in  another  engagement 
with  the  French.  In  the  present  battle,  he  was  twice  carried 
below  on  account  of  his  wounds,  and  had  the  misfortune  to  have 
his  remaining  hand  shot  away.  While  below  the  second  time, 
his  officers  came  down  and  told  him  that  they  must  strike,  as  the 
ships  were  cut  to  pieces,  and  the  men  could  not  be  kept  to  their 
guns.  Commodore  Barclay  was  then  carried  on  deck,  and  after 
taking  a  view  of  their  situation,  and  rinding  all  chance  of  suc- 
cess was  over,  reluctantly  gave  orders  to  strike. 

In  the  course  of  the  action,  Perry  noticed  a  prime  and  favour- 
ite sailor,  who  was  captain  of  one  of  the  guns,  very  much 
embarrassed  with  his  piece,  which,  in  consequence  of  the  firelock 
being  broken,  was  rather  unmanageable,  and  rebounded.  Perry 
approached  him,  and  in  an  encouraging  manner  asked  him, 
"  What  is  the  matter  ?"  The  honest  tar,  who  had  been  showing 
signs  of  infinite  vexation,  turned  round,  and,  as  if  speaking  of 
a  mistress,  exclaimed  reproachfully,  "  Sir,  my  gun  behaves 
shamefully !"  He  then  levelled,  and  having  taken  aim,  raised 
up  and  squared  himself,  when  suddenly  a  cannon  ball  struck 
him  in  the  breast,  passed  through  him,  and  he  fell  dead  without 
a  groan  ! 

Lieutenant  Yarnall,  of  the  Lawrence,  behaved  throughout 
with  great  bravery  and  coolness.  He  was  dressed  as  a  common 
seaman,  a  red  bandanna  handkerchief  was  tied  round  his  neck, 
and  another  round  his  head,  to  staunch  two  wounds  which  he 
had  received.  From  these,  the  blood  trickled  down  his  face, 
and  a  splinter  having  passed  through  his  nose,  it  had  swelled  to 
a  hideous  magnitude.  In  this  frightful  plight,  looking  like  the 
very  genius  of  carnage  and  ill  luck,  he  came  up  to  Perry,  in  the 
hottest  and  bloodiest  of  the  fight,  and  announced  to  him  that  all 
the  officers  of  his  division  were  killed.  Perry  ordered  others 
in  their  place.  Shortly  after,  Yarnall  returned  with  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  dismal  tidings  that  all  the  officers  were  shot  down  ! 
"  Then,  sir,"  said  Perry,  "you  must  endeavour  to  make  out  by 
yourself;  I  have  no  more  to  furnish  you  with." 

Soon  after  the  victory  on  Lake  Erie,  the  president  of  the 
United  States  appointed  Oliver  H.  Perry  to  the  rank  of  captain 
in  the  navy. 

The  commodore  was  presented  with  the  freedom  of  the  cities 
of  New  York  and  Albany. 


664 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


HARRISON     CROSSING     LAKE     ERIE. 


The  thanks  of  congress  were  voted  to  the  commodore,  his 
officers,  seamen,  and  marines ;  and  medals  were  presented  to 
him  and  his  officers. 

The  thanks  of  the  senate  of  Pennsylvania,  with  medals  also, 
were  voted  to  the  commodore,  and  those  brave  men  who  served 
under  him. 

Rejoicings,  illuminations,  and  bonfires  were  exhibited  through 
all  parts  of  the  United  States. 

On  receiving  intelligence  of  Perry's  success,  General  Harri- 
son, who  had  been  reinforced  by  a  strong  body  of  Kentucky 
militia  under  Governor  Shelby,  embarked  on  the  lake,  and  soon 
arrived  at  Maiden.  This  post  had  been  abandoned  by  the 
British,  who  had  ascended  the  river  Thames  as  far  as  the  Mo- 
ravian villages.  Here  they  were  overtaken  by  General  Harri- 
son, on  the  5th  of  October,  who  succeeded  in  bringing  them  to 
action,  and  gained  a  complete  victory.  General  Proctor  saved 
himself  by  flight,  leaving  his  camp  equipage  and  papers.  Six 
hundred  of  the  British  were  made  prisoners.  The  Indians  are 
said  to  have  borne  the  brunt  of  the  battle  and  fallen  in  great 
numbers.  Their  great  chief,  Tecumseh,  was  among  the  slain  in 
the  battle  of  the  Thames,  having  been  shot  by  Colonel  Johnson. 
This  victory  restored  to  the  Americans  all  the  posts  which  had 
been  surrendered  by  General  Hull. 


BATTLE  BETWEEN  THE  HORNET  AND  PEACOCK.    665 


CAPTAIN     LAWRENCE. 


BATTLE  BETWEEN  THE  HORNET  AND 
PEACOCK. 


jjjjl        HE  following  account  of  this  cele- 

y||  brated  action  is   extracted  from 

\_^^    Captain    Lawrence's    official    de- 

.  J§§F-   sPatch   to   the  secretary  of  the 

^   navy,  dated  March  19,  1813 : 

After  cruising  off  the  coast  of 
Surinam,  from  the  5th  to  the  22d 
of  February,  without  meeting 
a  vessel,  I  stood  for  Demarara,  with  an  intention,  should  I  not 
be  fortunate  on  that  station,  to  run  through  the  West  Indies, 
on  my  way  to  the  United  States.  But,  on  the  morning  of  the 
24th,  I  discovered  a  brig  to  leeward,  to  which  I  gave  chase ; 

84  3  v  2 


666  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

ran  into  quarter  less  four,  and,  not  having  a  pilot,  was  obliged 
to  haul  off — the  fort  at  the  entrance  of  Demarara  river  at  this 
time  bearing  south-west,  distance  about  two  and  a  half  leagues. 
Previously  to  giving  up  the  chase,  I  discovered  a  vessel  at 
anchor  without  the  bar,  with  English  colours  flying,  apparently 
a  brig-of-war.  In  beating  round  Corobano  bank,  in  order  to 
get  at  her,  at  half-past  three,  P.  M.,  I  discovered  another  sail  on 
my  weather  quarter,  edging  down  for  us.  At  twenty  minutes 
past  four  she  hoisted  English  colours,  at  which  time  we  discovered 
her  to  be  a  large  man-of-war  brig,  beat  to  quarters,  and  cleared 
ship  for  action ;  kept  close  by  the  wind,  in  order,  if  possible, 
to  get  the  weather-gage.  At  ten  minutes  past  five,  finding  I 
could  weather  the  enemy,  I  hoisted  American  colours  and 
tacked.  At  twenty  minutes  past  five,  in  passing  each  other, 
exchanged  broadsides  within  half  pistol-shot. 

Observing  the  enemy  in  the  act  of  wearing,  I  bore  up,  re- 
ceived his  starboard  broadside,  ran  him  close  on  board  on  the 
starboard  quarter,  and  kept  up  such  a  heavy  and  well-directed 
fire,  that  in  less  than  fifteen  minutes  he  surrendered,  being  lite- 
rally cut  to  pieces,  and  hoisted  an  ensign,  union  down,  from  his 
fore  rigging,  as  a  signal  of  distress.  Shortly  after,  his  main- 
mast went  by  the  board,  despatched  Lieutenant  Shubrick  on 
board,  who  soon  returned  with  her  first  lieutenant,  who  re- 
ported her  to  his  Britannic  majesty's  late  brig  Peacock,  com- 
manded by  Captain  William  Peake,  who  fell  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  action  ;  that  a  number  of  her  crew  were  killed  and 
wounded,  and  that  she  was  sinking  fast,  having  then  six  feet 
of  water  in  her  hold  ;  despatched  the  boats  immediately  for  the 
wounded,  and  brought  both  vessels  to  anchor.  Such  shot-holes 
as  could  be  got  at  were  then  plugged,  her  guns  thrown  over- 
board, and  every  possible  exertion  used  to  keep  her  afloat,  until 
the  prisoners  could  be  removed  by  pumping  and  bailing,  but 
without  effect,  and  she  unfortunately  sunk  in  five  and  a  half 
fathoms  water,  carrying  down  thirteen  of  her  crew  and  three 
of  my  brave  fellows,  viz. :  John  Hart,  Joseph  Williams,  and 
Hannibal  Boyd.  Lieutenant  Conner,  Midshipman  Cooper,  and 
the  remainder  of  the  Hornet's  crew,  employed  in  removing  the 
prisoners,  with  difficulty  saved  themselves  by  jumping  in  a  boat 
that  was  lying  on  her  bows  as  she  went  down.  Four  men  of 
the  thirteen  mentioned  were  so  fortunate  as  to  gain  the  foretop, 


BATTLE   BETWEEN   THE   HORNET   AND   PEACOCK.  669 

and  were  afterwards  taken  off  by  the  boats.  Previous  to  her 
going  down,  four  of  her  men  took  to  her  stern  boat,  which  had 
been  much  damaged  during  the  action,  which  I  hope  reached 
the  shore  in  safety ;  but,  from  the  heavy  sea  running  at  the 
time,  the  shattered  state  of  the  boat,  and  the  difficulty  of  land- 
ing on  the  coast,  I  much  fear  they  were  lost.  I  have  not  been 
able  to  ascertain  from  her  officers  the  exact  number  killed. 
Captain  Peake  and  four  men  were  found  dead  on  board.  The 
master,  one  midshipman,  carpenter,  and  captain's  clerk,  and 
twenty-nine  seamen  were  wounded,  most  of  them  very  severely, 
three  of  whom  died  of  their  wounds  after  being  removed,  and 
nine  drowned.  Our  loss  was  trifling  in  comparison.  John 
Place,  killed ;  Samuel  Coulsan  and  Joseph  Dalrymple,  slightly 
wounded ;  George  Coffin  and  Lewis  Todd,  severely  burnt  by 
the  explosion  of  a  cartridge.  Todd  survived  only  a  few  days. 
Our  rigging  and  sails  were  much  cut ;  one  shot  through  the 
fore-mast,  and  the  bowsprit  slightly  injured.  Our  hull  received 
little  or  no  damage.  At  the  time  the  Peacock  was  brought  to 
action,  the  L'Espeigle,  (the  brig  mentioned  above  as  being 
at  anchor,)  mounting  sixteen  two-and-thirty-pound  carronades 
and  two  long  nines,  lay  about  six  miles  in  shore,  and  could 
plainly  see  the  whole  of  the  action.  Apprehensive  that  she 
would  beat  out  to  the  assistance  of  her  consort,  such  exertions 
were  made  by  my  officers  and  crew  in  repairing  damages,  &c, 
that  by  nine  o'clock  the  boats  were  stowed,  a  new  set  of  sails 
bent,  and  the  ship  completely  ready  for  action.  At  two,  A.  M., 
got  under  way,  and  stood  by  the  wind  to  the  northward  and 
westward  under  easy  sail. 

On  mustering  next  morning,  found  that  we  had  two  hundred 
and  seventy-seven  souls  on  board,  including  the  crew  of  the 
American  brig  Hunter,  of  Portland,  taken  a  few  days  before 
by  the  Peacock  ;  and,  as  we  had  been  on  two-thirds'  allowance 
of  provisions  for  some  time,  and  had  but  three  thousand 
four  hundred  gallons  of  water  on  board,  I  reduced  the  allow- 
ance to  three  pints  a  man,  and  determined  to  make  the  best  of 
my  way  to  the  United  States. 

The  Peacock  was  deservedly  styled  one  of  the  finest  vessels 
of  her  class  in  the  British  navy,  probably  about  the  tonnage  of 
the  Hornet.  Her  beam  was  greater  by  five  inches,  but  her 
extreme  length  not  so  great  by  four  feet.     She  mounted  six- 


670 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


teen  twenty-four  pound  carronades,  two  long  nines,  one  twelve- 
pound  carronade  on  her  top-gallant-forecastle,  as  a  shifting  gun, 
and  one  four  or  six  pounder,  and  two  swivels  mounted  aft.  I 
find  by  her  quarter  bill  that  her  crew  consisted  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four  men,  four  of  whom  were  absent  in  a  prize. 

The  cool  and  determined  conduct  of  my  officers  and  crew 
during  the  action,  and  their  almost  unexampled  exertions  after- 
wards, entitle  them  to  my  warmest  acknowledgments,  and  I 
beg  leave  most  earnestly  to  recommend  them  to  the  notice  of 
the  government. 


THE  ENTERPRISE  AND  THE  BOXER. 


671 


BATTLE   BETWEEN   THE   ENTERPRISE   AND 
THE  BOXER. 


N  the  1st  of  September,  the 
Enterprise,  Captain  Burroughs, 
sailed  from  Portsmouth  on  a 
cruise.  On  the  5th,  early  in 
the  morning,  they  espied  a  brig 
in  shore,  getting  under  way. 
They  reconnoitred  her  for  a 
while  to  ascertain  her  character, 
of  which  they  were  soon  in- 
formed by  her  hoisting  three 
British  ensigns,  and  firing  a 
shot  as  a  challenge.  The  En- 
terprise then  hauled  upon  a  wind,  stood  out  of  the  bay,  and  pre- 
pared for  action.  A  calm  for  some  time  delayed  the  encounter ; 
it  was  succeeded  by  a  breeze  from  the  south-west,  which  gave 
our  vessel  the  weather-gage.     After  manoeuvring  for  a  while  to 


672 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


ENTERPRISE    AND    BOXER. 


the  windward,  in  order  to  try  her  sailing  with  the  enemy,  and  to 
ascertain  his  force,  the  Enterprise,  about  three,  p.  m.,  shortened 
sail,  hoisted  three  ensigns,  fired  a  gun,  tacked,  and  ran  down 
with  an  intention  to  bring  him  to  close  quarters.  When  within 
half  pistol-shot,  the  enemy  gave  three  cheers,  and  commenced 
the  action  with  his  starboard  broadside.  The  cheers  and  the 
broadside  were  returned  on  our  part,  and  the  action  became 
general.  In  about  five  minutes  after  the  battle  had  commenced, 
the  gallant  Burrows  received  a  musket-ball  in  his  body  and  fell ; 
he,  however,  refused  to  be  carried  below,  but  continued  on  deck 
through  the  action.  The  active  command  was  then  taken  by 
Lieutenant  McCall,  who  conducted  himself  with  great  skill  and 
coolness.  The  enemy  was  out-manceuvred  and  cut  up ;  his 
maintopmast  and  topsail-yard  shot  away  ;  a  position  gained  on 
his  starboard  bow,  and  a  raking  fire  kept  up,  until  his  guns 
were  silenced  and  he  cried  for  quarters,  saying,  that  as  his 
colours  were  nailed  to  the  mast  he  could  not  haul  them  down. 
The  prize  proved  to  be  his  Britannic  majesty's  brig  Boxer,  of 
fourteen  guns.  The  number  of  her  crew  is  a  matter  of  con- 
jecture and  dispute.  Sixty-four  prisoners  were  taken,  seventeen 
of  whom  were  wounded.  How  many  of  the  dead  were  thrown 
into  the  sea  during  the  action  it  is  impossible  to  say ;  the  British 
return  only  four  as  killed ;  courtesy  forbids  us  to  question  the 
veracity  of  an  officer  on  mere  presumption ;  but  it  is  ever  the 


THE   ENTERPRISE   AND   THE   BOXER.  673 

natural  wish  of  the  vanquished  to  depreciate  their  force ;  and, 
in  truth,  we  have  seen  with  regret  various  instances  of  disinge- 
nuousness  on  the  part  of  the  enemy,  in  the  statements  of  our 
naval  encounters.  But  we  will  not  enter  into  disputes  of  this 
kind.  It  is  enough  that  the  enemy  entered  into  the  battle  with 
a  bravado  at  the  mast-head,  and  a  confidence  of  success ;  this 
either  implied  a  consciousness  of  his  own  force,  or  a  low  opinion 
of  his  antagonist ;  in  either  case  he  was  mistaken.  It  is  a  fruit- 
less task  to  vindicate  victories  against  the  excuses  of  the  van- 
quished ;  sufficient  for  the  victor  is  the  joy  of  his  triumph ;  he 
should  allow  the  enemy  the  consolation  of  accounting  for  it. 

We  turn  gladly  from  such  an  idle  discussion  to  notice  the  last 
moments  of  the  worthy  Burrows.  There  needs  no  elaborate 
pencil  to  impart  pathos  and  grandeur  to  the  death  of  a  brave 
man.  The  simple  anecdotes,  given  in  simple  terms  by  his  sur- 
viving comrades,  present  more  striking  pictures  than  could  be 
wrought  up  by  the  most  refined  attempts  of  art.  "  At  twenty 
minutes  past  three,  p.  m.,"  says  one  account,  "  our  brave  com- 
mander fell,  and  while  lying  on  the  deck,  refusing  to  be  carried 
below,  raised  his  head  and  requested  that  the  flag  might  never 
be  struck."  In  this  situation  he  remained  during  the  rest  of 
the  engagement,  regardless  of  bodily  pain  ;  regardless  of  the 
life-blood  fast  ebbing  from  his  wound  ;  watching  with  anxious 
eye  the  vicissitudes  of  battle  ;  cheering  his  men  by  his  voice,  but 
animating  them  still  more  by  his  glorious  example.  When  the 
sword  of  the  vanquished  enemy  was  presented  to  him,  we  are 
told  that  he  clasped  his  hands  and  exclaimed,  "  I  am  satisfied, 
I  die  contented."  He  now  permitted  himself  to  be  carried  be- 
low, and  the  necessary  attentions  were  paid  to  save  his  life,  or 
alleviate  his  sufferings.  His  wound,  however,  was  beyond  the 
power  of  surgery,  and  he  breathed  his  last  within  a  few  hours 
after  the  victory. 

The  commander  of  the  Boxer,  Captain  Samuel  Blythe,  was 
killed  early  in  the  action,  by  a  cannon-ball :  had  he  lived,  he 
might  have  defended  his  ship  more  desperately,  but  it  is  not 
probable  with  more  success.  He  was  an  officer  of  distinguished 
merit ;  having  received  a  sword  from  government  for  his  good 
conduct  under  Sir  James  L.  Yeo,  in  the  capture  of  Cayenne. 
He  was  also  one  of  the  pall-bearers  of  our  lamented  Lawrence, 
when  buried  at  Halifax.  It  was  his  fate  now  to  receive  like 
85  3  G 


674 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN   niSTORY. 


courtesy  at  the  hands  of  his  enemy.  His  remains,  in  company 
with  those  of  the  brave  Burrows,  were  brought  to  Portland, 
where  they  were  interred  with  military  honours.  It  was  a 
striking  and  affecting  sight,  to  behold  two  gallant  commanders, 
who  had  lately  been  arrayed  in  deadly  hostility  against  each 
other,  descending  into  one  quiet  grave,  there  to  mingle  their 
dust  peacefully  together. 


NEGOTIATIONS   FOR   PEACE. 


675 


OPERATIONS  ON  THE  NORTHERN  FRONTIER 

IN  1814. 


ARLY  in  the  spring  of  1813  an  offer  was 
made  by  the  emperor  of  Russia  of  his 
mediation,  as  the  common  friend  of  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  for  the 
purpose  of  facilitating  a  peace  between 
them.  The  president,  having  accepted 
this  offer,  commissioned  John  Quincy 
Adams,  then  minister  of  the  United  States  at  St.  Petersburg, 
Albert  Gallatin,  and  James  A.  Bayard,  with  the  requisite  pow- 
ers to  conclude  a  treaty  of  peace  with  persons  clothed  with 
similar  powers  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain. 

During  the  session  of  congress,  which  commenced  in  Decem- 
ber, 1813,  a  communication  was  received  from  the  British  go- 
vernment, declining  to  treat  under  the  mediation  of  Russia, 
and  proposing  a  direct  negotiation  in  London  or  Gottenburg. 
This  proposition  was  accepted,  and  the  latter  place  appointed 
for  the  meeting,  which  was  afterwards  transferred  to  Ghent ; 
and  Henry  Clay  and  Jonathan  Russell  were  added  to  the  com- 
missioners who  had  already  gone  to  Europe. 

For  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  force  of  the  regular  army, 
several  acts  of  congress  were  passed,  offering  large  bounties  to 
recruits,  and  providing  liberally  for  the  pay,  rations,  and 
clothing  of  the  troops.  A  loan  of  twenty-five  millions  of  dol- 
lars, and  the  issue  of  treasury  notes  for  five  millions,  were  also 
authorized.  Provision  was  also  made  for  the  increase  and  bet- 
ter organization  of  the  navy,  and  for  the  defence  of  the  sea- 
board. An  embargo,  which  had  been  laid  to  prevent  the  trade 
under  British  licenses,  was  repealed  in  April,  1814. 

The  fall  of  Napoleon,  having  left  Great  Britain  at  peace 
with  all  nations,  except  the  United  States,  enabled  that  power 


676  INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

to  direct  the  whole  of  her  disposable  force  against  the  Ameri 
cans.     This  circumstance,  increasing  the  perils  of  the  campaign, 
rendered  it  necessary  to  make  greater  exertions  and  sacrifices 
for  the  defence  of  the  country. 

The  spring  passed  away  without  any  important  operations  on 
either  side.  The  army,  which  had  wintered  at  French  Mills, 
left  that  station  in  the  early  part  of  the  spring,  one  division, 
under  General  Wilkinson,  proceeding  to  Plattsburg,  and  the  re- 
mainder, under  General  Brown,  returning  to  Sackett's  Harbour. 
In  March,  General  Wilkinson  entered  Canada,  and  made  an 
attack  on  a  party  of  the  British  stationed  in  a  large  stone  build- 
ing called  La  Cole  Mill.  He  was  defeated  with  a  heavy  loss, 
and,  being  soon  afterwards  superseded,  his  command  was  given 
to  General  Izard. 

On  the  5th  of  May,  the  British  made  a  descent  on  Oswego, 
and  succeeded  in  capturing  and  destroying  the  fort  and  mili- 
tary stores  at  that  place ;  after  which  they  returned  to  King- 
ston. 

Early  in  July,  General  Brown  crossed  the  Niagara  river  and 
invested  Fort  Erie,  which  was  surrendered  without  opposition, 
and  the  prisoners,  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  in  number, 
were  sent  to  Buffalo.  The  army  then  advanced  to  Chippewa, 
where  a  large  body  of  the  British  were  posted ;  and,  on  the  5th 
of  July,  a  severe  engagement  took  place,  in  which  the  British 
lost  upwards  of  three  hundred  killed  and  wounded,  two  hun- 
dred being  left  dead  on  the  field.  The  American  loss  was  sixty 
killed,  and  two  hundred  and  sixty-eight  wounded  and  missing. 
The  British  then  retired  to  Fort  George,  and  General  Brown 
took  post  at  Queenstown,  to  await  reinforcements  from  Sackett's 
Harbour. 

The  expected  reinforcements,  however,  being  blockaded  by  a 
British  fleet  off  the  harbour,  did  not  arrive.  Detachments  from 
the  army  were  occupied  with  unimportant  skirmishes  until  July 
25th,  when  the  battle  of  Bridgewater,  near  the  cataract  of 
Niagara,  took  place. 

The  British  advanced  to  the  attack  under  General  Drummond. 
The  first  brigade,  under  General  Scott,  with  Towson's  artillery 
and  a  body  of  cavalry,  composed  the  advance  of  the  Americans, 
and,  engaging  the  enemy  at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  sus- 
tained the  attack  without  support  for  an  hour.      General  Rip- 


BATTLE   OF   BRIDGEWATER. 


G77 


BATTLE     OF     LUNDY'8     LANE. 


ley,  with  fresh  troops,  then  arriving,  relieved  General  Scott, 
and  his  exhausted  brigade  formed  a  reserve  on  the  rear.  The 
British  artillery  had  taken  post  on  an  eminence  at  the  head  of 
Lundy's  Lane,  and  poured  a  most  deadly  fire  on  the  Americans. 
It  became  necessary  to  dislodge  them  or  retreat.  "  Will  you 
advance  and  capture  that  battery?"  said  the  commanding 
general  to  Colonel  Miller.  "I  will  try,  sir,"  was  the  modest 
reply  of  the  colonel,  which  afterwards  became  the  motto  of  his 
regiment.  He  advanced  coolly  and  steadily  to  his  object,  amidst 
a  tremendous  fire  of  artillery,  and  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet 
carried  the  artillery  and  the  height.  The  guns  were  turned 
upon  the  enemy.  Several  attempts  were  made  to  regain  them 
without  success.  The  principal  force  of  both  parties  were  di- 
rected to  this  point,  and  a  most  sanguinary  contest  took  place, 
which  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  the  British.  The  loss  on  each 
side  was  about  eight  hundred.  Generals  Brown  and  Scott 
being  both  severely  wounded  in  the  battle,  the  command  de- 
volved upon  General  Ripley,  who  took  post  at  Fort  Erie.  Gene- 
ral Gaines  having  arrived  soon  after,  and  taken  the  command, 
was  attacked  by  General  Drummond,  at  the  head  of  five 
thousand  troops,  who  formally  invested  the  place  on  the  4th  of 

3q2 


678 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


COLONEL     MILLER. 


August.  Having  advanced  their  lines  to  within  four  hundred 
yards  of  the  fort,  the  enemy  commenced  a  brisk  cannonade  on 
the  13th,  which  continued  the  whole  of  that  and  the  next  day. 
The  fire  was  steadily  returned  by  the  Americans.  On  the  night 
of  the  14th,  an  assault  was  made  by  the  British,  which  resulted 
in  their  repulse,  with  the  loss  of  nine  hundred  men — the  Ame- 
ricans losing  but  eighty-four. 

On  the  2d  of  September,  General  Brown  had  so  far  recovered 
from  his  wounds  as  to  be  able  to  resume  the  command.  The 
British  main  body,  under  General  Drummond,  was  encamped 
two  miles  from  Fort  Erie,  while  his  works  were  advanced  to 
within  four  hundred  yards  of  the  American  lines.  One  of  his 
brigades,  with  a  detachment  of  artillery,  was  stationed  at  this 
advance.     On  the  17th,  Generals  Porter,  Miller,  and  Brown, 


DEFENCE  OF   FORT   ERIE. 


679 


DEFENCE     OP     FORT     ERIE. 


with  large  detachments,  made  a  sortie,  with  a  view  to  cut  off 
the  British  advanced  posts  from  the  main  body.  Within  thirty 
minutes  the  whole  line  of  the  enemy's  intrenchments  were  in 
possession  of  the  Americans.  The  works  were  destroyed,  and, 
strong  reinforcements  of  the  enemy  coming  up,  the  Americans 
retired  within  their  lines.  The  American  loss  was  seventy- 
nine  killed  and  four  hundred  and  thirty-two  wounded  and  miss- 
ing. The  British  loss,  live  hundred  killed  and  wounded,  and 
three  hundred  and  eighty-five  captured.  The  result  of  this 
gallant  sortie  completely  discouraged  the  enemy,  who,  on  the 
night  of  the  21st,  raised  the  siege,  which  had  continued  forty- 
nine  days,  and  retired  to  his  intrenchments  behind  the  Chip- 
pewa. 

On  the  9th  of  October,  General  Izard  arrived  with  reinforce- 
ments from  Plattsburg  and  took  the  command,  General  Brown 
retiring  to  Sackett's  Harbour.  General  Izard,  deeming  it  in- 
expedient to  attempt  any  further  offensive  operations  in  this 
quarter,  demolished  the  works  at  Fort  Erie,  and  removed  the 
troops  to  Buffalo. 

The  next  attempt  of  the  British  was  a  descent  upon  Platts- 
burg.    This  was  the  principal  military  and  naval  depot  for  the 


680  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 

army  of  the  north  and  the  flotilla  on  Lake  Champlain.  Its 
defence  was  intrusted  to  General  Macomb,  with  one  thousand 
five  hundred  regulars,  and  the  neighbouring  militia  to  be 
called  in  as  occasion  might  require.  On  the  1st  of  September, 
General  Prevost,  with  fourteen  thousand  men,  advanced  to 
Champlain,  within  fifteen  miles  of  the  American  lines.  Hav- 
ing called  in  the  militia,  who  flocked  to  his  standard  from  the 
neighbouring  country  in  great  numbers,  General  Macomb  made 
every  exertion  to  impede  the  approach  and  prepare  for  the 
attack  of  the  enemy.  The  bridges  on  his  line  of  march  were 
broken  up,  and  every  possible  impediment  thrown  in  the  way 
of  his  passage,  and  the  fortifications  at  Plattsburg  were 
strengthened  by  additional  breastworks  and  batteries. 

On  the  6th  of  September,  the  British  advance  was  met  at 
Batemantown,  six  miles  from  Plattsburg,  by  a  corps  of  seven 
hundred  militia,  under  General  Mooers.  After  some  slight 
skirmishing,  the  militia  discovered  the  New  York  state  dragoons 
in  red  uniform,  reconnoitering  the  heights  on  their  rear,  and 
mistaking  them  for  British  troops  in  the  act  of  surrounding 
their  party,  they  broke  and  fled  in  every  direction.  On  the 
same  day,  the  British,  commanded  by  Sir  George  Prevost  in 
person,  entered  Plattsburg.  The  Americans  retired  to  the 
south  side  of  the  Saranac  river,  tore  up  the  bridges  and  made 
breastworks  of  them,  and  guarded  the  ford-ways,  while  the 
British  strengthened  their  works  and  prepared  for  the  attack. 

While  these  operations  were  going  forward  on  land,  the 
American  squadron  on  Lake  Champlain  lay  at  anchor  in  a  bay 
two  miles  distant,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  British  fleet,  which 
was  to  assist  in  the  simultaneous  attack  about  to  take  place  on 
land  and  water.  On  the  morning  of  the  11th,  the  enemy's 
ships  appeared,  bearing  down  upon  the  Americans  under  easy 
sail,  and  the  action  immediately  commenced.  It  was  a  hard- 
fought  battle,  and  it  terminated  in  a  manner  highly  honourable 
to  the  courage  and  resolution  of  Commodore  McDonough  and 
his  brave  associates.  The  fleets  were  engaged  two  hours  and 
twenty  minutes.  Nearly  all  the  British  ships  were  sunk  or 
taken  ;  and,  when  the  action  closed,  there  was  not  a  mast  stand- 
ing in  either  squadron  to  which  a  sail  could  be  attached.  When 
the  flag-ship  of  the  British,  having  lost  its  commander,  Com- 
modore Downie,  struck  her  colours,  the  shores  resounded  with 


BATTLE   OF   LAKE   CHAMPLAIN. 


081 


BATTLE     OF     LAKE     CHAMPLAIN. 


the  acclamations  of  the  American  troops  and  citizens.  The 
British,  seeing  their  fleet  completely  conquered,  were  dispirited 
and  dismayed. 

The  American  force  consisted  of  the  Saratoga,  twenty-six 
guns ;  Eagle,  twenty ;  Ticonderoga,  seventeen  ;  Preble,  seven ; 
six  galleys  of  two  guns,  and  four  of  one — -in  all  eighty-six  guns 
and  eight  hundred  and  twenty  men.  The  British  had  the  Con- 
fiance,  thirty-nine  guns ;  Linnet,  sixteen ;  Cherub,  twelve ; 
Finch,  eleven ;  five  galleys  of  two  guns  each,  and  eight  of  one 
gun  each — making  in  all  ninety-five  guns  and  one  thousand  and 
twenty  men.  American  loss,  fifty-two  killed  and  fifty-eight 
wounded.  British  loss,  eighty-four  killed  and  one  hundred  and 
ten  wounded.  The  old  story !  The  result  was  always  about 
in  the  same  proportion  when  the  fighting  was  done  on  the  water. 

At  the  moment  when  the  naval  action  had  commenced,  the 
British,  from  their  works  on  shore,  had  opened  a  heavy  fire  of 
shot,  shells,  and  rockets  upon  the  American  lines.  Under 
cover  of  this  fire,  three  desperate  efforts  were  made  to  cross 
the  Saranac,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  the  American  lines  by 
assault,  all  which  were  met  and  successfully  resisted.  One 
ford,  guarded  by  militia,  was  passed,  and  a  body  of  the  British 
being  drawn  into  the  woods,  were  so  severely  handled  that  they 
86 


682 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


were  compelled  to  recross  the  river  with  considerable  loss.  At 
six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  the  British  batteries  were  silenced ; 
and,  during  the  night,  the  whole  army  decamped  with  precipi- 
tation, leaving  their  sick  and  wounded,  and  most  of  their  camp 
equipage,  intrenching  tools,  and  provisions,  behind  them.  This 
retreat  was  so  sudden  and  unexpected,  that  it  was  not  discovered 
by  the  American  general  till  the  British  were  eight  miles  from 
the  late  scene  of  action.  Indeed,  he  had  little  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  a  disciplined  and  well-appointed  army,  "Wellington's 
veterans,"  numbering  some  fourteen  thousand,  would  have  fled 
so  incontinently  from  one  thousand  and  five  hundred  American 
regulars  and  three  thousand  militia.  The  hard  fighting  on  the 
lake  must  have  had  what  it  is  the  fashion  to  call  a  "  moral 
effect."  In  the  phrase  of  Monsieur  De  Bourrienne,  it  " demo- 
ralized'" them.  Their  commander  was  dismissed  and  disgraced 
by  his  government. 

This  batfle  terminated  the 
active  warfare  on  the  Canada 
border,  the  general  result  of 
which  conveys  to  Americans 
the  important  lesson  that  the 
genius  of  their  institutions, 
and  the  character  of  the  peo- 
ple, are  as  uncongenial  to  all 
schemes  of  foreign  conquest 
as  they  are  favourable  to  the 
resolute  and  unflinching  de- 
fence of  their  own  soil.  The 
militia  who  displayed  so  much 
bravery  near  their  own  firesides  could  never  be  brought  to  enter 
heartily  into  the  scheme  of  invading  the  British  territory.  All 
efforts  in  that  quarter  resulted  in  the  same  "lame  and  impotent 
conclusion."  Even  the  splendid  achievement  at  Chippewa, 
Bridgewater,  and  Fort  Erie,  produced  nothing  in  the  way  of 
conquest ;  while  the  defence  of  Fort  Sandusky  and  Plattsburg 
brought  the  solid  advantages  of  immunity  from  foreign  oppres- 
sion and  savage  warfare. 


COMMODORE     M  c  D  0  SOUGH. 


ATTACK   ON   WASHINGTON   AND   BALTIMORE. 


683 


»ilil!i!fllUIIIUU[Ulllllllllliiii 


COMMODORE    BARNEY. 


ATTACK  ON  WASHINGTON  AND 
BALTIMORE. 


N  the  10th  of  August,  1814,  a  Bri- 
tish fleet  of  sixty  sail,  under  Ad- 
miral Cochrane,  with  a  land  force 
of  six  thousand  men,  under  General 
Ross,  entered  the  Chesapeake  bay, 
and  proceeded  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Potomac,  when  a  squadron  under 
Commodore  Gordon  entered  that 
river,  and  advanced  towards  Alex- 
andria. The  principal  part  of  the 
fleet,  with  the  land  forces,  continued 
their  course  to  the  mouth  of  the  Patuxent,  and  entered  that 
river  on  the  18th.  Commodore  Barney,  who  commanded  the 
American  flotilla  of  gun-boats  on  that  river,  to  prevent  their 
falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  blew  them  up,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  join  General  Winder. 


684  INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 

The  British,  on  their  advance  up  the  Patuxent,  learning  the 
defenceless  state  of  Washington,  determined  on  an  expedition  to 
that  city.  Five  thousand  men,  under  General  Ross,  having 
landed  at  Benedict,  advanced  towards  the  capital ;  the  Ame- 
ricans retiring  before  him.  The  whole  force  for  the  defence  of 
the  city,  including  militia,  did  not  exceed  seven  thousand  two 
hundred.  They  were  concentrated  on  and  near  the  heights  of 
Bladensburg.  On  the  24th,  the  British  advanced,  and  com- 
menced an  attack,  driving  in  the  advanced  parties  until  they 
encountered  the  battery  of  Commodore  Barney,  manned  with 
seamen  and  marines,  who  gave  them  the  only  serious  repulse 
which  they  met,  and  inflicted  the  heaviest  loss  which  they  suf- 
fered in  the  battle.  Being  deserted  by  the  militia,  this  gallant 
little  band  were  at  length  surrounded,  and  their  commander, 
being  wounded,  was  captured  and  paroled  for  his  courage  by 
General  Ross.  The  city  was  then  abandoned  by  the  president 
and  heads  of  departments  ;  the  whole  American  force  retreated 
to  Georgetown. 

At  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  General  Ross  entered  the 
city  at  the  head  of  eight  hundred  men.  Having  arrived  on 
Capitol  hill,  he  offered  terms  of  capitulation,  which  were,  that 
the  city  might  be  ransomed  by  paying  a  sum  of  money  nearly 
equal  to  the  value  of  public  and  private  property  which  it  con- 
tained ;  and  that,  on  receiving  it,  the  British  troops  should  retire 
unmolested.  As  there  was  no  civil  or  military  authority  on  the 
spot,  competent  to  enter  into  such  an  arrangement  as  this,  he 
proceeded  to  burn  the  Capitol,  the  president's  house,  the  offices 
of  the  several  departments,  and  a  consideral  number  "of  private 
dwellings.  The  navy  yard,  with  its  contents,  one  frigate  on  the 
stocks,  and  several  smaller  vessels  were  also  destroyed.  The 
libraries  and  public  archives,  together  with  all  the  works  of  art 
contained  in  the  public  buildings,  were  included  in  the  general 
conflagration. 

No  parallel  for  this  act  of  Vandalism  can  be  found  in  the  an 
nals  of  modern  warfare.  It  was  felt  with  the  deepest  resent- 
ment by  the  American  people,  and  denounced  in  the  severest 
terms  even  in  the  British  parliament.  The  disgrace  of  having 
their  capital  taken  by  an  enemy  was  suffered  by  the  Americans 
in  common  with  every  other  civilized  nation  ;  but  the  lasting 


ATTACK   ON   WASHINGTON   AND   BALTIMORE.  685 

stigma  of  burning  national  archives  and  senate  chambers  remains 
with  the  British  alone. 

Having  accomplished  their  object,  the  enemy,  on  the  25th, 
made  a  precipitate  retreat,  and  on  the  30th  embarked  at  Bene- 
dict. 

The  squadron  under  Commodore  Gordon,  which  had  advanced 
up  the  river  Potomac,  arrived  at  Alexandria  on  the  29th ;  and 
the  commander  having  granted  terms  of  capitulation  to  the  citi- 
zens, by  which  the  shipping,  naval  stores,  and  merchandise 
were  delivered  up,  received  the  surrender  of  the  place.  A 
scene  of  indiscriminate  plunder  then  ensued.  The  vessels  in 
the  harbour  were  taken  and  loaded  with  the  large  stores  of 
flour,  tobacco,  cotton,  wines,  and  sugars,  of  which  Alexandria 
was  the  depot,  and  the  whole  was  carried  off  with  the  squadron, 
on  its  return  down  the  river.  The  public  and  private  buildings 
of  the  town  were  mercifully  spared. 

The  success  of  General  Ross  at  Washington  induced  him  to 
undertake  the  capture  of  Baltimore.  He  boasted  that  he  would 
make  that  city  his  winter-quarters,  and  with  the  force  which  he 
commanded  he  could  march  where  he  pleased  in  Maryland. 

The  Americans  were  not  unprepared  for  an  attack  in  this 
quarter.  A  force  of  militia  from  Maryland  and  the  neigh- 
bouring states,  together  wTith  the  regular  troops  who  had  re- 
cently been  engaged  at  Washington,  amounting  in  all  to  fifteen 
thousand  men,  had  been  assembled  for  the  defence  of  the  city. 
The  command  of  these  troops  was  given  to  General  Smith,  of 
the  Maryland  militia,  assisted  by  General  Winder. 

On  the  11th  of  September,  a  British  squadron  of  fifty  sail, 
Avith  six  thousand  men,  entered  the  mouth  of  the  Patapsco,  and 
on  the  morning  of  the  12th  commenced  landing  at  North  Point, 
fourteen  miles  below  the  city.  General  Strieker  was  detached 
with  three  thousand  five  hundred  militia  to  oppose  their  advance. 
General  Ross,  having  preceded  the  main  body  of  his  army  with 
a  small  reconnoitering  party,  was  shot  through  the  breast  by  a 
rifleman,  fell  into  the  arms  of  his  aid-de-camp,  and  died  in  a 
few  minutes.  The  command  devolved  on  Colonel  Brook,  who 
led  on  the  attack,  which  was  commenced  by  a  discharge  of 
rockets  from  the  British,  and  was  succeeded  by  grape,canister, 
and  small  arms  on  both  sides.  After  maintaining  his  position 
for  an  hour  and  a  half  against  a  great  superiority  of  numbers, 

3H 


686 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


General  Strieker  was  at  length  obliged  to  retire  to  Worthington 
Mills,  half  a  mile  in  advance  of  the  main  body. 

On  the  night  of  the  12th,  the  British  bivouacked  in  advance 
of  the  battle  ground,  and  on  the  13th  commenced  their  march 
towards  the  city.  When  -within  two  miles  of  the  American 
lines  they  halted  to  await  the  result  of  the  attack  on  Fort 
McHcnry.  This  fortress  defends  the  narrow  passage  from  the 
Patapsco  into  Baltimore  harbour,  two  miles  below  the  city,  and 
its  command  had  been  intrusted  to  Major  Armistead,  with  one 
thousand  men.  Fort  Covington,  on  the  right  of  Fort  McHenry, 
was  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Newcomb.  On  the  12th,  a. Bri- 
tish squadron  of  sixteen  ships  drew  up  in  line  of  battle  within 
two  miles  and  a  half  of  the  forts,  and  at  sunrise  on  the  13th, 
commenced  an  attack  on  them  with  bombs  and  rockets.  Twelve 
hundred  men  were  detached  to  storm  the  works  on  the  suc- 
ceeding night,  and  the  battle  raged  with  great  fury  till  the 
morning  of  the  14th,  when  the  assailants,  being  completely 
foiled,  were  compelled  to  retire,  and  the  squadron  sailed  down 
the  river.  Their  example  was  speedily  followed  by  the  army, 
who  had  sanguinely  anticipated  the  capture  and  plunder  of  Bal- 
timore. 


BOMBARDMENT    OF    FOBT    M°HENRY. 


CRUISE  OF   THE   ESSEX. 


687 


COMMODORE    PORTER. 


CRUISE   OF   THE   ESSEX. 


SSBpflpL  MONG  those  by  whom  the 
=111|§11e  enterprise  of  the  American 
|  navy  was  chiefly  evinced, 
?v-i  was  Captain  Porter,  whose 
jpl  cruise  on  the  Pacific  termi- 
nated about  this  time.  As 
early  as  the  month  of  Oc- 
|  tober,  1812,  he  sailed  from 
the  Delaware  in  the  frigate 
I  Essex.  He  doubled  Cape 
Horn,  amidst  tremendous 
storms,  about  the  middle  of  February,  1813,  and  on  the  15th  of 
March  put  into  the  port  of  Valparaiso,  and,  having  obtained  the 
necessary  supplies,  proceeded  on  his  cruise,  along  the  coast  of 
Chili,  and  thence  to  the  Gallipagos  islands.     In  the  vicinity  of 


688  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


COMMODORE    PORTER'S    CRUISE    IN    THE    PACIFIC. 

these  isles  the  Essex  cruised  for  upwards  of  six  months,  during 
which  she  totally  destroyed  that  valuable  part  of  the  enemy's 
commerce  which  was  carried  on  in  those  seas.  The  whole  of 
the  British  vessels  at  that  time  in  the  Pacific,  to  the  number  of 
twelve,  carrying  in  all  one  hundred  and  seven  guns,  and  three 
hundred  and  two  men,  were  captured.  Their  value  was  estimated 
at  two  and  a  half  millions  of  dollars.  He  converted  one  of  them 
into  a  vessel  of  war,  mounting  twenty  guns,  which  he  named  the 
Essex  Junior ;  and  sailed  for  Valparaiso. 

The  intelligence  of  Captain  Porter's  exploits  had  at  length 
occasioned  a  force  of  the  enemy  to  be  sent  in  pursuit  of  him. 
Soon  after  his  arrival  at  Valparaiso,  the  Phoebe,  a  British  frigate 
of  thirty-eight  guns,  and  a  sloop  of  war,  appeared  off  the  port, 
having  been  fitted  out  expressly  to  meet  the  Essex.  •  They  en- 
tered the  harbour  to  obtain  provisions,  and,  having  effected  this, 
again  stood  out  and  cruised  off  the  port  for  about  six  weeks. 
Their  united  force  was  much  greater  than  that  of  Captain  Por- 
ter, the  Essex  Junior  being  of  but  little  utility  in  action.  At 
length,  on  the  28th  March,  the  Essex  made  an  attempt  to  get 
to  sea,  with  a  favourable  wind.  The  enemy's  vessels  were  close 
to  the  shore,  and  Captain  Porter  expected  to  be  able  to  pass  to 
windward  of  them.  Unfortunately,  however,  in  rounding  the 
point,  the  American  vessel  was  struck  by  a  squall,  which  carried 
away  her  main-topmast.     Thus  crippled,  escape  to  sea  was  im- 


CRUISE   OF   THE   ESSEX.  689 

possible  ;  and  as  it  was  equally  difficult  to  reach  the  harbour, 
Captain  Porter  ran  into  a  small  bay,  and  anchored  within  pistol- 
shot  of  the  shore.  In  this  situation  it  was  to  have  been  expected 
that  the  ordinary  rules  of  warfare,  which  forbid  an  attack  upon 
an  enemy  lying  within  a  neutral  territory,  would  have  been  ob- 
served. It  was,  nevertheless,  soon  perceived  that  Captain  Hill- 
yar,  the  English  commander,  was  determined  to  avail  himself 
of  the  opportunity  offered,  without  regard  to  the  rights  of  sove- 
reignty of  the  local  government.  The  Essex  was  prepared  for 
action  with  all  possible  despatch  ;  but  before  a  spring  could  be 
put  upon  her  cable  to  enable  her  to  bring  her  broadside  to  bear, 
the  attack  was  commenced.  The  British  commander,  desirous 
of  capturing  the  Essex  with  as  little  loss  to  himself  as  possible, 
placed  his  frigate,  the  Phoebe,  under  her  stern,  while  the  Cherub 
took  a  position  on  her  bows.  The  latter,  soon  finding  the  fire 
of  the  Essex  too  warm,  bore  up,  and  ran  also  under  her  stern, 
where  both  ships  kept  up  a  heavy  and  raking  fire.  Captain 
Porter  continued  the  action  for  a  considerable  time,  with  three 
long  twelve-pounders,  being  all  the  guns  which  he  found  it  possible 
to  bring  to  bear  on  the  enemy,  when,  finding  his  crew  falling 
fast  around  him,  he  cut  his  cable,  and  ran  down  on  the  enemy, 
with  the  intention  of  laying  the  Phoebe  on  board.  For  a  short 
time  a  close  and  sanguinary  action  ensued ;  but  the  superior 
equipment  of  the  British  frigate  enabling  her  to  choose  her 
distance,  she  edged  off,  and  continued  so  heavy  a  fire  from  her 
long  guns,  that  Captain  Porter  determined  to  run  his  ship 
ashore.  He  was,  however,  disappointed  in  this  hope  by  the 
wind  setting  off  the  land ;  and  after  an  unequal  and  hopeless 
contest  of  three  hours,  was  compelled  to  give  the  painful  order 
to  strike  the  colours. 

The  loss  of  the  Essex  in  this  engagement  was  fifty-eight 
killed,  sixty-six  wounded,  and  thirty-one  missing,  most  of  the 
latter  escaping  to  the  shore  by  swimming ;  that  of  the  British 
was  said  to  be  only  five  killed  and  ten  wounded.  Both  of  the 
enemy's  vessels,  as  well  as  the  Essex,  were  so  much  crippled, 
that  it  was  with  difficulty  they  were  enabled  to  reach  the  port  of 
Valparaiso.  Captain  Porter  and  his  crew  were  paroled  and  per- 
mitted to  return  to  the  United  States  in  the  Essex  Junior,  her 
armament  being  previously  taken  out.  On  arriving  off  the 
port  of  New  York,  they  were  overhauled  and  detained  by  the 
87  3  h  2 


690 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


Saturn  razee.  Being  thus  treated,  Captain  Porter  told  the 
boarding-officer  that  he  gave  up  his  parole,  and  considered  him- 
self a  prisoner  of  war,  and  as  such  should  use  all  means  of 
escape.  In  consequence  of  this  threat,  the  Essex  Junior  was 
ordered  to  remain  all  night  under  the  lee  of  the  Saturn  ;  but 
the  next  morning  Captain  Porter  put  off  in  his  boat,  though 
thirty  miles  from  shore ;  and,  notwithstanding  he  was  pursued 
by  the  Saturn,  effected  his  escape  and  landed  safely  on  Long 
Island.  His  reception  in  the  United  States  was  such  as  his 
great  services  and  distinguished  valour  deserved. 


CAPTURE    OF    THE    EPERVIER  AND   REINDEER. 


G91 


CAPTAIN    WARRINGTON. 


CAPTURE   OF   THE   EPERVIER  AND 
REINDEER. 


HHi^  N  the  29th  of  April,  the  sloop-of- 
war  Peacock,  of  eighteen  guns, 
commanded  by  Captain  Warring- 
ton, fell  in  with,  and  after  an  ac- 
tion of  forty-two  minutes,  cap- 
tured the  British  brig-of-war  Eper- 
vier,  of  a  like  number  of  guns, 
and  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
eight  men,  of  whom  eight  were 
killed  and  fifteen  wounded.  The 
Peacock  was  deprived  of  the  use  of  her  foresail  and  fore-top- 
sail in  the  early  part  of  the  action  ;  but  received  no  other  in- 
jury, two  men  only  being  slightly  wounded.  The  prize  had  on 
board  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  dollars  in  specie,  which 


692 


INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


CAPTAIN     BLAKELY. 


was  transferred  to  the  Peacock,  and  both  vessels  arrived  in 
safety  in  the  United  States. 

About  this  period  the  sloop-of-war  Wasp,  of  eighteen  guns, 
commanded  by  Captain  Blakely,  sailed  from  Portsmouth,  on  her 
first  cruise.  After  capturing  seven  merchantmen,  she  encoun- 
tered, on  the  28th  of  June,  the  British  brig-of-war  Reindeer,  of 
nineteen  guns  and  one  hundred  and  eighteen  men.  After  a 
series  of  manoeuvres  on  the  part  of  the  latter,  by  -which  a  close 
action  was  for  a  long  time  prevented,  a  warm  engagement  com- 
menced, which  was  continued  with  great  spirit  on  both  sides  for 
upwards  of  two  hours,  during  which  the  enemy  several  times 
attempted  to  board,  but  were  as  often  repulsed.  The  crew  of 
the  Wasp  now  boarded  with  great  ardour,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
resistance  ceased  and  the  British  flag  was  hauled  down.  Owing 
to  the  proximity  of  the  two  vessels  and  the  smoothness  of  the 
sea,  the  loss  on  both  sides  was  severe.  That  of  the  Americans 
was  five  killed  and  twenty-one  wounded ;  while  the  British  lost 


CAPTURE  OF  THE  EPERVIER  AND  REINDEER. 


695 


twenty-five  killed,  including  Captain  Manners,  and  forty-two 
wounded.  The  Reindeer  was  so  much  injured  that  it  was  found 
necessary  to  set  her  on  fire. 

Captain  Blakely,  continuing  his  cruise,  about  the  1st  of.  Sep- 
tember discovered  a  fleet  of  merchantmen  under  convoy  of  a 
seventy-four  gun  ship.  One  of  them  was  taken,  and  after  re- 
moving her  cargo,  was  set  on  fire.  On  the  same  evening  he 
fell  in  with  and  captured  the  British  sloop-of-war  Avon,  of 
twenty  guns.  The  appearance  of  a  British  squadron  compelled 
him  to  abandon  his  prize,  which  sunk  soon  after  the  removal  of 
her  crew. 

The  damage  sustained  in  this  action  being  soon  repaired, 
Captain  Blakely  continued  his  cruise,  and  on  the  23d  of  Sep- 
tember, captured  the  British  brig  Atalanta,  which  he  sent  into 
the  United  States.  From  this  period  no  tidings  ever  reached 
the  republic  of  this  gallant  ship.  Whether  she  foundered  in 
darkness  and  tempest,  or  perished  in  a  conflict  with  an  enemy, 
has  never  been  ascertained. 


696 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


CAPTURE  OF   THE   PENGUIN. 


N  the  morning  of  the  23d  of  March, 
while  the  Hornet  sloop-of-war,  of  eighteen 
guns,  commanded  by  Captain  Biddle, 
was  preparing  to  anchor  off  the  island 
of  Tristan  d'Acunha,  a  sail  hove  in  sight, 
steering  to  the  northward,  with  a  fine 
breeze,  and  disappeared  in  a  few  minutes 
behind  a  projecting  point  of  land.  The 
Hornet  immediately  made  sail,  and  on 
clearing  the  point,  discovered  the  same 
vessel,  bearing  down  before  the  wind,  when  Captain  Biddle 
shortened  sail  and  hove-to  for  her  to  come  up  with  him.  When 
the  stranger  got  near  he  began  also  to  shorten  sail,  and  took  in 
his  steering-sails  very  clumsily,  for  the  purpose,  as  it  afterwards 
appeared,  of  practising  a  deception.  At  forty  minutes  past 
one,  the  engagement  commenced  by  a  broadside  from  the  Hor- 
net. The  action  was  sustained  with  great  spirit  for  fifteen 
minutes,  when  the  enemy  approached,  with  the  apparent  inten- 


CAPTURE    OF    THE   PENGUIN. 


699 


ESCAPE     OF     THE     HORNET. 


tion  of  boarding ;  but  finding  the  Hornet  prepared  to  receive 
him,  he  desisted  from  the  attempt,  and  in  a  few  minutes  sur- 
rendered. The  prize  proved  to  be  the  British  brig-of-war  Pen- 
guin, of  nineteen  guns  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  men, 
forty-two  of  whom  were  killed  or  wounded.  So  heavy  and  well- 
directed  had  been  the  fire  of  the  Hornet,  that  it  was  found 
necessary  to  scuttle  the  Penguin,  after  removing  the  prisoners. 
The  Hornet  received  no  material  injury ;  one  man  only  of  her 
crew  was  killed,  and  eleven  wounded. 

Shortly  after  this  event  the  Hornet  was  joined  by  the  Pea- 
cock ;  but  was  soon  separated  from  her  again  by  the  appearance 
of  a  seventy-four  gun-ship,  by  which  the  former  was  chased. 

Captain  Biddle  finally  succeeded  in  effecting  his  escape  from 
the  seventy-four,  by  throwing  his  guns  overboard,  and  otherwise 
lightening  his  ship.  This  rendered  the  Hornet's  return  into 
port  indispensable ;  and  as  it  would  have  been  extremely  hazard- 
ous to  approach  the  American  coast,  being  without  guns,  boats, 
or  anchors,  he  concluded  to  go  into  St.  Salvador,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  refitting  and  resuming  his  cruise.  He  arrived  there  on 
the  9th  of  June,  and  received  intelligence  of  the  peace  with 
Great  Britain. 


700 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


GENERAL     JACKSON. 


EXPEDITION  OF  THE  BRITISH  AGAINST  NEW 
ORLEANS.— RETURN  OF  PEACE. 


HE  British  had  for  some  time  been  preparing 
for  an  expedition  against  New  Orleans.  The 
fleet  lately  employed  in  the  Chesapeake,  and 
the  whole  British  force  which  could  be  spared 
from  the  Atlantic  coast,  had  been  assembled 
at  Jamaica  and  at  Bermuda,  to  prepare  for 
this  grand  attempt.  Large  reinforcements 
had  been  ordered  from  England,  under  Gene- 
ral Packenham,  furnished  not  only  with  the  means  of  war,  but 
with  printing  presses,  and  custom-house  and  civil  officers,  and 


EXPEDITION   AGAINST   NEW   ORLEANS.  701 

every  thing  incident  to  a  permanent  establishment.  Indeed,  so 
certain  were  the  enemy  of  accomplishing  their  object,  that  there 
were  merchants  on  board  the  fleet  who  went  out  for  the  purpose 
of  buying  the  cotton  which  was  to  compose  a  part  of  the  coveted 
plunder. 

On  the  20th  of  October,  this  formidable  armament,  con- 
sisting of  sixty  vessels,  with  eight  thousand  troops,  sailed  from 
the  West  Indies,  and  on  the  18th  of  November  arrived  at  the 
entrance  of  Lake  Borgne.  On  the  2d  of  December,  General 
Jackson,  with  the  regular  troops  from  the  Mobile  and  Missis- 
sippi territory,  arrived  at  New  Orleans,  and  immediately  com- 
menced a  system  of  efficient  measures  for  its  defence.  The 
militia  of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi  were  ordered  out  en  masse, 
and  large  detachments  from  Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  From 
Governor  Claiborne,  of  Louisiana,  General  Jackson  had  pre- 
viously learnt  that  the  city  corps  had  for  the  most  part  refused 
to  turn  out  on  the  requisition  of  General  Flournoy,  that  the 
legislature  of  the  state,  then  in  session,  had  encouraged  them  in 
their  disobedience,  and  that  among  the  citizens  there  were  many 
disaffected  to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  friendly 
to  the  British. 

Finding  on  his  arrival  in  the  city  that  this  information  was 
correct,  and  that  the  most  imminent  danger  was  threatened  by 
the  presence  and  influence  of  the  disaffected,  General  Jackson, 
after  consulting  with  the  governor  and  other  leading  citizens, 
on  the  16th  of  December  issued  an  order,  declaring  the  city 
and  environs  of  New  Orleans  to  be  under  strict  martial  law. 
The  rigid  police  which  this  measure  enabled  him  to  exert,  soon 
freed  the  city  from  the  spies  and  traitors  with  which  it  had 
abounded  ;  and  the  citizens  addressed  themselves  earnestly  to 
the  business  of  preparing  for  the  vigorous  defence  of  the  city. 
The  fortifications  were  strengthened,  and  every  man  who  could 
bear  arms  was  required  to  take  a  part  in  the  military  operations 
on  which  the  safety  of  all  depended. 

Fort  St.  Philip,  which  guarded  the  passage  of  the  river  at 
Detour  la  Plaquemine,  was  strengthened  and  placed  under  the 
command  of  Major  Overton.  An  extensive  line  of  works  was 
erected  four  miles  below  the  city,  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, the  right  resting  on  the  river,  and  the  left  reaching  to 
an  impenetrable  cypress  swamp.     A  ditch  which  had  been  dug 


702  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

for  agricultural  objects,  between  the  river  and  the  swamp,  was 
now  made  use  of  for  an  important  military  purpose.  On  its 
northern  bank  intrenchments  were  thrown  up,  and  large  quan- 
tities of  cotton  bales  were  so  arranged  as  to  protect  the  troops 
effectually  from  the  enemy's  fire.  These  works  were  well 
mounted  with  artillery.  Opposite  this  position,  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  river,  General  Morgan,  with  a  body  of  militia,  was 
stationed,  and  ne^r  him  Commodore  Patterson,  with  the  crews 
and  guns  of  part  of  his  squadron ;  enfilading  the  approach  of 
the  enemy  against  the  principal  works.  A  detachment  was 
stationed  above  the  town,  to  guard  the  pass  of  the  Bayou  St. 
John.  These  dispositions  having  been  made  for  the  defence  of 
the  city,  the  approach  of  the  enemy  was  firmly  awaited. 

To  clear  the  way  for  the  transportation  of  their  troops  by 
boats,  the  British  first  sent  forward  forty  launches  filled  with 
men,  who  attacked,  and  after  a  desperate  resistance  captured 
and  destroyed  the  American  flotilla  stationed  on  lakes  Borgne 
and  Pontchartrain,  consisting  of  five  gun-boats  and  a  small  sloop 
and  schooner.  Having  thus  obtained  possession  of  the  lakes, 
on  the  22d  of  December  a  detachment  was  sent  from  their  ren- 
dezvous, at  Ship  Island,  to  the  Bayou  Bienvenue,  and  having 
effected  a  landing  unobserved,  were  marching  towards  the  city. 
General  Jackson,  having  been  apprized  of  their  approach, 
marched  out  and  attacked  them  on  the  night  of  the  23d.  In 
this  action  the  British  lost  five  hundred  in  killed,  wounded,  and 
missing.  They  retreated,  and  intrenched  themselves  at  Bien- 
venue, four  miles  from  the  American  camp.  The  armed 
schooners  Caroline  and  Louisiana  dropped  down  the  river  from 
the  city,  and  opened  a  fire  on  the  British  lines.  On  the  27th, 
the  Caroline  got  aground,  and  was  set  on  fire  and  destroyed 
by  the  hot  shot  of  the  enemy.  The  Louisiana  succeeded  in 
getting  out  of  the  reach  of  their  batteries. 

On  the  28th,  the  British  advanced  within  half  a  mile  of  the 
American  lines,  and  opened  a  fire  of  shells  and  rockets,  but 
were  repulsed  by  the  artillery.  On  the  night  of  the  31st,  they 
came  within  six  hundred  yards  of  the  works,  erected  three  bat- 
teries, and  opened  a  heavy  fire.  Under  cover  of  these  batteries 
they  attempted  three  times  to  storm  the  works,  but  were  re- 
pulsed, and  their  batteries  being  silenced,  they  returned  to  their 
former  position. 


EXPEDITION   AGAINST   NEW   ORLEANS. 


703 


The  final  assault  was  reserved  for  the  8th  of  January.  To 
insure  its  success,  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  order  a  simulta- 
neous attack  to  be  made  on  the  main  works,  and  on  the  position 
of  General  Morgan  and  Commodore  Patterson,  west  of  the 
river.  Colonel  Thornton  was  detached  for  the  latter  service, 
with  five  hundred  men,  and  soon  effected  a  landing.  Colonel 
Davis,  with  three  hundred  Kentucky  militia,  being  ordered  to 
the  water's  edge  to  oppose  them,  was  soon  put  to  flight,  and  the 
Louisiana  militia,  under  General  Morgan,  also  fled,  deserting 
their  battery.  Commodore  Patterson's  battery  being  thus  left 
unsupported,  his  crews  were  obliged  to  yield  to  a  superior  force  ; 
but  the  resistance  which  they  were  able  to  make  detained  the 
British  until  the  contest  on  the  other  side  of  the  river  was  nearly 
over. 

While  these  operations  were  going  forward  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  river,  the  decisive  action  was  fought  on  the  opposite  side. 
At  daybreak,  on  the  8th,  the  main  body  of  the  British,  under 
General  Packenham,  advanced  from  their  encampment  to  storm 
the  American  lines.  A  battery  which  they  had  erected  the 
evening  before,  within  eight  hundred  yards,  opened  a  fire  to 
protect  their  advance.     They  came  on  in  two  columns,  the  left 


704  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

column  along  the  levee  against  the  American  right,  and  the  right 
column  advancing  to  the  swamp,  for  the  purpose  of  turning 
General  Jackson's  right.  When  they  had  approached  within 
three  hundred  yards  of  the  lines,  forty  pieces  of  artillery  from 
the  American  works  opened  upon  them  a  destructive  fire  of 
grape-shot  and  musket-balls,  and  mowed  them  down  by  hundreds, 
while  the  riflemen,  taking  deliberate  aim,  made  nearly  every 
shot  take  effect.  Through  this  destructive  fire  the  British  left 
column  rushed  on  with  their  fascines  and  scaling  ladders,  and 
carried  the  advanced  bastion  of  the  American  right ;  but  being 
unsupported,  and  assailed  by  the  battery  planted  in  the  rear, 
and  a  regiment  of  riflemen  brought  up  for  the  purpose,  they 
were  driven  from  the  ground  with  immense  loss  of  lives.  The 
right  column  of  the  British  having  attempted  to  pass  into  the 
swamp  for  the  purpose  of  turning  the  American  left,  were  pre- 
vented from  effecting  their  object  by  the  nature  of  the  ground, 
and  being  exposed  to  the  fire  from  the  batteries,  were  compelled 
to  retire.  The  assault  continued  an  hour  and  a  quarter,  during 
which  the  British  were  exposed  to  the  destructive  fire  from  the 
American  artillery  and  musketry,  while  the  breastworks  of  cot- 
ton bales,  which  no  balls  could  penetrate,  afforded  a  perfect 
protection  to  their  opponents.  General  Packenham  was  mor- 
tally wounded ;  General  Gibbs,  the  second  in  command,  also 
received  a  mortal  wound;  and  General  Keane,  the  third  in 
command,  was  wounded  so  severely  as  to  be  incapable  of  per- 
forming his  duties  of  commander. 

At  eight  o'clock  the  British  retreated  to  their  works.  The 
militia  were  anxious  to  pursue  them,  but  General  Jackson  pru- 
dently determined  not  to  risk  the  loss  of  the  city  by  so  rash  a 
proceeding.  Of  the  troops  which  the  British  had  brought  into 
the  field,  seven  hundred  were  killed,  fourteen  hundred  wounded, 
and  five  hundred  captured,  making  a  total  loss  of  twenty-six 
hundred.  The  Americans  lost  six  killed,  and  seven  wounded. 
Of  General  Morgan's  detachment  on  the  west  bank,  and  of  a 
party  sent  on  a  sortie  on  the  British  lines,  forty-nine  were  killed, 
and  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight  wounded. 

The  British  kept  up  the  appearance  of  renewing  the  attack, 
and  on  the  ninth  commenced  a  bombardment  of  Fort  St.  Philip, 
which  was  continued  till  the  17th,  and  sustained  by  Major  Over- 
ton and  his  garrison  with  but  trifling  loss.      This,  however,  was 


RETURN   OF   PEACE. 


705 


merely  a  feint  to  cover  their  final  retreat,  which  took  place  on 
the  16th  of  January,  under  the  direction  of  General  Lambert. 

While  the  whole  country  was  electrified  with  the  news  of  this 
important  victory,  intelligence  was  received  from  Europe  of  the 
conclusion  of  a  treaty  of  peace  by  the  commissioners  assembled 
at  Ghent.  The  treaty  had  been  signed  on  the  24th  of  Decem- 
ber, and  ratified  by  the  prince-regent  of  England  on  the  27th. 
It  was  received  in  the  United  States  on  the  11th,  and  ratified 
on  the  17th  of  February  by  the  president  and  senate.  The 
pacification  of  Europe,  in  1814,  had  removed  all  the  real  grounds 
of  war  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  by  render- 
ing the  interruption  of  American  commerce  and  the  impressment 
of  seamen  unnecessary  for  promoting  the  objects  of  the  British 
government.  The  conquests  on  both  sides  were  restored  ;  and 
provision  was  made  for  settling  the  boundaries  between  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  which,  till  1842,  continued  a  subject 
of  negotiation. 

A  treaty  to  regulate  the  commerce  between  the  two  coun- 
tries was  signed  at  London  on  the  3d  of  July,  and  ratified  by 
the  president  on  the  22d  of  December. 


89 


706 


INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


THE  GREEK  REVOLUTION. 


HE  events  of  the  Greek  revo- 
1  lution,  which  began  in  1820, 
and  of  the  war  between  the 
Greeks  and  Turks,  which 
1  lasted  ten  years,  till  the  end 
of  1829,  are  well  known 
through  the  works  of  Leake, 
Stanhope,  Blaquiere,  and  nu- 
merous others.  The  Greeks 
were  determined  to  shake  off 
the  Turkish  yoke,  and  they 
succeeded  in  clearing  the  Morea  of  their  enemies  and  defeating 
them  by  sea.  The  Porte,  unable  to  subdue  them,  called  to  its 
assistance  the  disciplined  forces  of  the  pasha  of  Egypt,  which 
invaded  the  Peloponnesus,  and  the  cause  of  Greek  independ- 
ence had  again  become  problematical,  when  the  three  powers, 
Great  Britain,  France,  and  Russia,  resolved  to  put  a  stop  to 
this  war  of  extermination,  which  had  been  carried  on  for  so 
many  years.  The  victory  of  Navarino,  gained  by  the  allied 
fleets  in  October,  1827,  obliged  the  Egyptian  forces  to  evacuate 
the  Morea.  The  conference  of  London,  in  March,  1829,  esta- 
blished the  principle  of  the  independence  of  Greece  as  a  state, 
and  the  successful  campaign  of  the  same  year  of  the  Russians 
against  the  Turks  induced  the  sultan  to  acknowledge  it  by  an 
article  of  the  treaty  of  Adrianople,  in  September,  1829.     In 


THE   GREEK  REVOLUTION.  707 

January,  1830,  the  conference  of  London  settled  the  total  in- 
dependence of  Greece  from  the  Porte,  and  fixed  Thermopylae 
and  the  Aspropotamos  as  the  frontiers  of  the  new  state,  which 
were  afterwards  extended  in  1832  to  the  present  boundary  line, 
with  the  consent  of  the  sultan.  Meantime,  the  internal  govern- 
ment of  Greece  had  undergone  many  vicissitudes.  During 
their  arduous  struggle  against  the  Turks,  the  Greeks  had  called 
together  at  Troezen  a  congress  of  deputies  from  the  various 
districts,  which  settled  the  basis  of  a  constitution ;  but  the 
vicissitudes  of  the  war  prevented  the  government  from  assuming 
a  fixed  and  orderly  shape.  When  the  independence  of  Greece 
was  secured  by  the  interference  of  the  three  allied  powers,  the 
congress  appointed  Count  John  Capodistria,  a  native  of  Corfu, 
who  had  been  employed  with  distinction  as  a  diplomatic  agent 
of  Russia,  to  be  the  head  of  the  executive  of  the  new  state  of 
Greece,  with  the  title  of  president,  for  seven  years,  and  with 
very  extensive  powers.  Capodistria  arrived  in  Greece  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1828,  and  he  set  about  establishing  a  central  system  of 
bureaucracy,  as  in  France  and  Russia,  by  which  the  government 
was  to  interfere  in  and  regulate  at  pleasure  all  the  concerns  of 
society,  civil,  financial,  commercial,  municipal,  and  religious. 
Unfortunately  for  his  plan,  the  Greeks,  even  under  Turkish 
despotism,  had  been  used  to  much  individual  freedom,  and  to 
have  the  direction  of  their  own  municipal,  judicial,  and  com- 
mercial affairs,  under  the  guidance  of  their  archontes  and 
clergy ;  the  Turks  lived  chiefly  in  the  fortified  towns,  interfer- 
ing but  little  in  the  internal  concerns  of  the  rayahs,  and  em- 
ploying the  archontes  themselves  to  exact  whatever  they  wanted 
from  the  people.  The  result  of  Capodistria's  rash  measures 
was  an  insurrection,  which  began  in  Maina  and  Hydra,  and 
soon  extended  to  most  of  the  islands,  and  to  the  warlike  popu- 
lation of  Roumelia. 

On  the  8th  of  October,  1831,  Capodistria  was  murdered  at 
Nauplia  in  open  day,  on  the  threshold  of  the  church  of  St. 
Spiridion,  by  George  and  Constantine  Mauromicali,  the  rela- 
tives of  Petros  Mauromicali,  the  bey  of  Maina,  whom  the  pre- 
sident had  kept  for  a  long  time  in  prison  without  bringing  him 
to  trial.  His  brother  Augustin  Capodistria  succeeded  him  in 
the  presidency,  but  the  civil  war  continuing,  he  was  obliged  to 
resign.     At  last  the  allied  powers  offered  the  crown  of  Greece, 


708 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


which  had  been  refused  by  Prince  Leopold  of  Saxe  Coburg,  to 
the  king  of  Bavaria  for  his  younger  son  Otho,  then  a  minor ; 
and  the  offer  being  accepted,  Otho,  accompanied  by  a  council 
of  regency,  and  a  body  of  Bavarian  troops,  arrived  at  Nauplia 
in  February,  1833,  and  was  willingly  acknowledged  by  the 
Greeks  as  their  sovereign.  In  June,  1835,  King  Otho,  being 
of  age,  took  the  direction  of  the  affairs  of  state.  The  govern- 
ment is  a  constitutional  hereditary  monarchy,  with  two  legisla- 
tive houses — a  senate  and  house  of  representatives.  In  the  year 
1836,  King  Otho  made  a  journey  to  Germany,  where  he  married 
Amelia  Maria,  daughter  of  the  grand-duke  of  Oldenburg  ;  an< 
in  February,  1837,  he  returned  with  his  bride  to  Greece,  ana 
made  his  entrance  into  Athens,  the  capital  of  the  kingdom,  in 
the  midst  of  general  acclamations.  It  is  settled  that  the  chil- 
dren of  this  marriage  shall  be  brought  up  in  the  Greek  commu- 
nion. Since  the  arrival  of  King  Otho,  Greece  has  been  com- 
paratively quiet,  bating  some  intrigues  and  dissensions  between 
the  Roumeliote  chiefs,  the  Moreote  primates,  and  the  old  klepht 
Colocotroni. 


FRENCH   CONQUEST   OF  ALGIERS. 


709 


CHARLES     X. 


FRENCH  CONQUEST  OF  ALGIERS— FRENCH 
REVOLUTION  OF  1830. 


N  1827,  the  French  government  had  sent  a  fleet 
under  Admiral  de  Rigny  to  the  coast  of  the  Mo- 
rea,  for  the  purpose  of  joining  the  English  in  put- 
ting a  stop  to  the  barbarous  warfare  between  the 
Greeks  and  the  Turks.  De  Rigny  and  the  Eng- 
lish admiral,  Codrington,  acted  in  concert  in  the  battle  fought 
in  Navarino  bay,  in  which  the  Turkish  fleet  was  destroyed,  and 
France,  in  like  manner,  subsequently  became  a  party  to  the 
treaties  by  which  Greece  was  finally  extricated  from  the  Turk- 
ish yoke,  and  made,  at  least  ostensibly,  an  independent  state. 

In  the  same  year  some  disputes  took  place  with  Algiers,  and 
a  blockading  squadron  was  despatched  there  to  demand  satis- 
faction. Some  slight  hostilities  followed ;  but  these  were  only 
a  prelude  to  the  sending  a  formidable  army  there  three  years 
afterwards. 

This  army,  which  consisted  of  no  less  than  thirty-seven  thou- 
sand men,  sailed  from  Toulon  on  the  25th  of  May,  1830.     It  was 

3K 


710  INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 

commanded  by  the  comte  de  Bourmont,  who  had  been  originally 
a  Vendean  chief,  but  had  tarnished  his  reputation  by  his  readi- 
ness to  join  all  parties,  and  had  been  a  Bourbonist  and  a  Bona- 
partist  by  turns.  On  June  14th,  after  encountering  much  hazy 
and  baffling  weather,  the  army  was  landed  on  the  coast  of 
Africa,  at  about  fifteen  miles  to  the  west  of  Algiers.  On  the 
4th  of  July,  as  the  French  were  preparing  an  assault  against 
one  of  the  forts,  the  dey  sent  a  flag  of  truce  to  treat  for  peace, 
and  the  terms  finally  settled  were  that  the  town  should  be  de- 
livered up  to  France,  and  that  the  inhabitants  should  retain 
their  private  property  and  personal  liberty,  together  with  the 
free  exercise  of  their  religion.  The  dey  himself  was  expelled, 
and  finally  took  up  his  abode  at  Naples.  It  had  been  originally 
announced  that  this  expedition  had  been  fitted  out  for  the  pur- 
pose of  causing  the  French  flag  to  be  respected  by  the  piratical 
states,  and  not  with  any  view  to  a  permanent  conquest ;  but  no 
disposition  to  abandon  the  new  colony  thus  acquired  has  yet 
been  shown. 

The  news  of  this  success  reached  Paris  on  the  9th  of  July, 
and  it  was  for  a  moment  hoped  that  it  might  gain  some  popu- 
larity for  the  ministers.  The  public  feeling  was,  however,  by 
this  time  too  much  decided  to  be  easily  turned.  On  the  26th 
the  king  issued  six  ordinances,  by  which  the  liberty  of  the  press 
was  abolished ;  the  newly  elected  chamber  of  deputies  dissolved, 
though  it  had  not  yet  met ;  a  new  mode  of  election  appointed ; 
and  several  individuals  very  obnoxious  to  the  people  nominated 
as  members  of  the  council  of  state.  The  intelligence  of  this 
subversion  (for  it  was  nothing  less)  of  the  charter  was  first  com- 
municated to  the  public  by  the  appearance  of  the  ordinances  in 
the  government  newspaper.  Even  Mare'chal  Marmont,  who  had 
the  military  command,  and  was  the  person  to  be  relied  on  to 
suppress  any  tumult  or  insurrection,  had  not  been  apprized  of 
what  was  intended.  The  king  passed  the  day  in  hunting,  and 
the  ministers,  although  some  mobs  collected  in  Paris,  and  broke 
lamps  and  windows,  and  threw  stones  at  Prince  Polignac's  car- 
riage, were  so  blind  to  their  danger  that  they  even  congratu- 
lated each  other  on  the  tranquillity  of  the  capital.  But  these 
congratulations  were  very  premature. 

During  the  whole  of  the  next  day  the  agitation  went  on  in- 
creasing.    The  military  were  called  out,  and  in  some  places  the 


FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1830.  711 

collected  multitudes  were  charged  by  the  cavalry.  In  other 
places,  after  much  forbearance,  the  streets  were  cleared  by  vol- 
leys of  musketry.  By  these  means  a  temporary  repose  was 
obtained  at  an  early  hour  of  the  night,  and  the  ministers  again 
hoped  that  the  contest  was  come  to  an  end.  Many  persons 
also  have  thought  that  if  the  ensuing  night  had  been  passed  by 
the  government  in  active  preparation  for  the  more  serious  con- 
test of  the  next  day,  the  insurrection  might  still  have  been 
suppressed. 

At  an  early  hour  of  the  morning  of  the  28th,  large  bodies  of 
people  were  everywhere  in  motion.  At  nine  o'clock,  the  tri- 
colour flag  was  seen  to  wave  from  the  top  of  the  cathedral  of 
Notre  Dame,  and  at  eleven  from  the  central  tower  of  the  Hotel 
de  Ville.  On  this  morning,  there  also  appeared  in  the  throng 
several  armed  citizens  arrayed  in  the  old  uniform  of  the  national 
guard.  The  ministers  declared  the  town  in  a  state  of  siege, 
and  Marmont,  who  had  been  disgusted  at  the  weakness  and 
precipitation  which  had  brought  affairs  into  this  dangerous  state, 
was  now  seriously  alarmed  for  the  result,  and  recommended  to 
take  measures  of  pacification.  No  attention  was  paid  to  this 
recommendation,  and  at  mid-day  he  put  the  guards  in  motion. 
A  series  of  contests  ensued  in  all  parts  of  the  town,  some  of 
which  lasted  till  late  at  night.  The  troops  fought  under  the 
disadvantage  of  being  plunged  in  narrow  and  crowded  streets, 
in  which,  though,  when  they  could  act  together,  they  sur- 
mounted all  opposition,  they  were  exposed  to  a  harassing  fire 
from  the  windows,  and  to  the  hurling  down  on  their  heads  of 
stones  and  tiles,  or  any  other  missiles  that  could  be  found. 
Even  boiling  water  and  oil  were  used  as  instruments  of  warfare 
on  this  occasion ;  and  it  is  said  that  one  lady  and  her  maid 
contrived  to  throw  down  a  pianoforte  on  the  heads  of  the  ad- 
verse party  in  the  streets.  The  scene  on  which  the  contest  of 
this  day  took  the  most  serious  appearance  was  the  Place  de 
Gre>e,  and  the  north  end  of  Pont  Notre  Dame.  Of  these  stations 
the  guards  took  possession,  though  under  a  series  of  incessant 
attacks.  But  the  troops  of  the  line,  which  had  been  appointed 
to  support  them,  refused  to  act,  and  the  guards  were  therefore 
at  length  compelled  to  retire,  first  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and 
afterwards  to  the  Tuileries.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Marmont 
had  exposed  his  troops  to  these  repulses  by  frittering  them  into 


712  INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

small  bodies ;  but  his  heart  had  never  been  in  the  cause  for 
■which  he  was  fighting.  He  was  pledged  by  the  office  which  he 
bore  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  government,  but  he  saw  and  felt, 
at  the  same  time,  that  it  was  going  wrong. 

In  the  mean  time,  some  of  the  deputies  to  the  new  chamber, 
which  the  king  had  dissolved,  endeavoured,  but  in  vain,  to  re- 
store tranquillity.  They  had  assembled  on  the  27th,  and  had 
protested  against  the  fatal  ordinances  of  the  day  before.  On 
the  28th,  a  body  of  them  proceeded  to  the  Tuileries,  and  had 
an  audience  of  Marmont,  who  tried  to  persuade  them  to  use 
their  influence  with  the  people  to  make  them  submit.  They 
replied  that  the  ordinances  must  be  repealed,  and  the  ministers 
changed,  before  any  conciliation  could  be  attempted,  and  that, 
if  these  things  were  not  done,  they  must  themselves  take  part 
against  the  government.  Marmont  wrote  at  five  in  the  after- 
noon to  the  king,  to  express  his  opinion  of  the  great  danger  of 
the  crisis  which  had  arrived,  but  received  in  return  only  an  in- 
junction to  persevere  in  the  use  of  force,  and  to  act  in  larger 
masses  than  before. 

The  night  of  the  29th  was  passed  by  the  populace  in  erect- 
ing barricades  across  the  principal  streets,  to  hinder  them  from 
being  penetrated  or  scoured  by  the  troops.  On  the  evening  of 
the  27th,  they  had  made,  in  some  places,  a  rude  sort  of  blockade 
with  carriages  and  omnibuses.  They  now  broke  up  the  pave- 
ment at  intervals,  and  heaped  it  into  mounds,  which  they  aug- 
mented with  planks  and  pieces  of  furniture  ;  and  they  also  cut 
down  and  employed  in  the  same  manner  the  trees  of  the  Boule- 
vards. All  these  preparations,  however,  were  not  brought  to 
the  trial.  The  soldiers,  instructed  by  their  experience  of  the 
day  before,  did  not  attempt  to  penetrate  again  into  the  narrow 
streets,  and  maintained  themselves  during  the  whole  of  the 
morning  of  the  next  day  in  their  positions.  The  populace 
made,  however,  several  skirmishing  attacks,  and  some  of  them 
fell  by  the  fire  of  the  guards. 

The  first  approach  to  a  decision  of  the  contest  was  by  the 
desertion  of  the  regiments  of  the  line  at  about  noon  of 
this  day,  the  29th.  But  before  this  was  known,  or  during  an 
interval  in  which  the  guards  had  been  removed  from  their  post, 
the  populace  made  way  into  the  garden  in  front  of  the  Louvre, 
and  thence,  entering  through  the  windows  and  glass  doors, 


FRENCH   REVOLUTION   OF   1830.  713 

took  possession  of  the  whole  interior  of  the  edifice.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  guards  were  compelled  to  fly  in  disorder ;  they 
rallied  for  a  time  in  the  Place  de  Carrousel,  but  were  not  sup- 
ported, and  were  again  obliged  to  retire.  Shortly  afterwards, 
Marmont  relinquished  the  possession  of  the  city  to  the  insur- 
gents. He  withdrew  all  the  troops  whom  his  orders  could 
reach,  and  directed  them  to  take  the  road  to  St.  Cloud,  in  order 
to  protect  the  person  of  the  king.  And  thus,  by  three  in  the 
afternoon,  Paris  was  left  entirely  at  the  command  of  the  popu- 
lace. 

The  ministers  now  tendered  their  resignations ;  and  the  king, 
seeing  the  necessity  of  the  case,  signed  an  order,  by  which  he 
repealed  the  obnoxious  decrees,  and  appointed  a  new  ministry 
composed  of  men  attached  to  popular  principles.  But,  before 
this  order  could  be  received  in  Paris,  the  Parisians  had  deter- 
mined that  he  should  not  be  permitted  to  reascend  the  throne. 

As  soon  as  the  retreat  of  Marmont  and  his  troops  was  ascer- 
tained, the  deputies  in  Paris  formed  and  proclaimed  a  provi- 
sional government.  The  national  guard  was  called  out,  and 
General  La  Fayette  was  appointed  to  take  the  command.  The 
personal  influence  and  popularity  of  this  veteran  was  exceed- 
ingly great  with  all  classes  of  citizens.  All  his  orders  were 
willingly  obeyed  ;  and  it  is  thought  to  have  been  greatly  through 
the  weight  of  his  individual  character  that  order  and  police 
were  restored  throughout  the  whole  city  before  the  close  of  the 
day.  It  is  also  remarked,  that  no  instance  has  been  recorded 
in  which  the  disorder  of  these  three  days  was  made  the  occa- 
sion of  any  plunder,  or  of  gratifying  any  private  malice. 

Such  was  the  revolution  de  trois  jours,  or  of  the  three  days. 
Never  before,  probably,  was  any  contest  of  so  much  moment, 
and  so  hotly  contested,  begun  and  ended  so  rapidly.  There 
is  a  story  of  a  party  of  Englishmen,  who  had  arrived  in  Paris 
just  at  the  time  on  a  tour  of  pleasure,  and  who  never  found  out 
what  was  going  on.  They  perceived  that  there  was  a  violent 
tumult,  but,  being  ignorant  of  the  French  language,  did  not 
discover  its  meaning  till  they  learned  on  their  return  home 
from  the  English  newspapers,  that  they  had  been  "  assisting," 
as  the  phrase  was,  at  a  revolution. 

On  the  30th  of  July,  the  deputies  invited  the  duke  of  Orleans 
to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the  government,  with  the  title 
90  3k2 


714  INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

of  lieutenant-general  of  the  kingdom.  The  duke  accepted  the 
offer  without  delay,  and  on  the  following  morning  issued  a  pro- 
clamation announcing  his  appointment,  and  adding  that  the 
chambers  were  about  to  assemble  to  consider  of  the  means  to 
secure  the  reign  of  the  laws  and  the  maintenance  of  the  rights 
of  the  nation,  and  that  the  charter  should  henceforward  be  a 
reality.  He  afterwards  met  the  deputies  and  the  members  of 
the  provisional  government  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and  pledged 
himself  still  more  strongly  to  the  most  popular  principles. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  intelligence  of  these  events  was  joy- 
fully received  as  it  spread  into  all  parts  of  the  kingdom.  The 
tri-colour  flag  waved  everywhere.  The  troops  submitted  to  the 
orders  of  the  new  government,  the  guards  only  continuing  so 
far  their  adherence  to  the  court  as  to  deem  it  their  duty  still 
to  protect  the  person  of  the  sovereign.  All  further  contest 
was  hopeless.  The  court  withdrew  on  the  31st  of  July  from 
St.  Cloud  to  Trianon,  and  on  the  following  day  to  Rambouillet. 
Here,  on  the  2d  of  August,  the  king  and  the  dauphin  signed 
an  act  of  abdication — the  one  of  the  crown  itself,  the  other  of 
his  right  of  succession,  in  favour  of  the  king's  infant  grandson, 
the  duke  of  Bordeaux,  the  son  of  the  unfortunate  due  de  Berri. 
This  act  of  abdication  the  king  addressed  to  the  duke  of  Or- 
leans, and  required  him  to  proclaim  the  accession  of  Henry  V. 
No  such  resource,  however,  to  save  the  crown  for  this  last  scion 
of  the  direct  stock  of  the  Bourbons  was  now  available.  The 
duke  of  Orleans,  either  in  his  eagerness  to  be  king  himself,  or 
because  he  felt  that  the  proposition  came  too  late,  suppressed, 
in  announcing  the  king's  and  the  dauphin's  abdication,  the  sti- 
pulation coupled  with  it  as  to  the  duke  of  Bordeaux.  But  that 
the  stipulation  had  been  made  was  publicly  known,  and  the 
news  threw  the  capital  again  into  some  confusion. 

The  mob  prepared  in  thousands  to  march  to  Rambouillet,  in 
probably  much  the  same  temper  in  which,  in  the  disastrous 
period  of  August,  1789,  another  mob  of  Paris  had  marched  to 
Versailles.  But  the  king,  though  he  had  still  guards  who 
might,  and  probably  would,  have  defended  him  successfully 
against  an  undisciplined  multitude,  determined  not  to  prolong 
an  unavailing  resistance.  He  set  out  for  Cherbourg,  and  on  the 
next  day  dismissed  his  guards,  retaining  only  a  small  escort. 
After  a  journey  in  which  he  was  everywhere  treated  with  re- 


FRENCH   REVOLUTION   OF   1830.  715 

spect,  but  not  received  with  any  indications  of  attachment,  he 
arrived  at  that  port,  August  15th.  He  reached  England  on  the 
17th,  and,  after  a  short  residence  at  Lulworth  castle«in  Dorset- 
shire, proceeded  to  Edinburgh,  where  the  ancient  palace  of 
Holyrood,  which  had  been  his  place  of  abode  during  a  great 
part  of  his  former  exile,  now  once  more  afforded  him  an  asylum. 

The  chamber  of  deputies  proceeded  on  the  6th  and  7th  of 
August  to  revise  the  charter,  and  to  make  the  formal  appoint- 
ment of  the  new  sovereign.  They  declared  the  throne  to  be 
vacant ;  that  not  only  the  Roman  Catholic,  but  that  all  minis- 
ters of  Christianity,  (and  to  these  were  added,  at  a  later  period, 
those  of  the  Jews,)  should  be  supported  at  the  public  expense ; 
and  that  all  the  peerages  granted  during  the  reign  of  Charles  X. 
should  be  null  and  void.  Finally,  they  resolved  that  Louis 
Philippe  duke  of  Orleans  should  be  called  to  the  throne,  by  the 
title,  not  of  king  of  France,  but  king  of  the  French,  in  the 
same  manner  in  which  Napoleon  had  been  entitled  emperor  of 
the  French,  not  of  France,  and  that  he  should  be  succeeded  by 
his  descendants  in  the  direct  male  line  only,  in  the  order  of 
birth. 

These  resolutions  of  the  house  of  deputies  were  transmitted 
on  the  same  day  (August  7)  to  the  chamber  of  peers,  though 
rather  as  a  matter  of  courtesy  than  with  any  recognition  of 
that  house  as  possessing  an  independent  voice  in  the  legisla- 
ture. The  viscount  Chateaubriand  spoke,  but  in  vain,  in  behalf 
of  the  claims  of  the  duke  of  Bordeaux.  The  declaration  of  the 
deputies  was  adopted,  and  on  the  9th  the  constitution,  as  thus 
created,  was  formally  tendered  to  and  accepted  by  the  new 
sovereign. 


'16 


INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


THE     E  JI  P  E  P.  0  R    OF    CUISA. 


THE   OPIUM   WAR   BETWEEN   ENGLAND 
AND   CHINA. 

SHE  prohibition  of  the  importation  of  opium  into 
Canton  having  been  disregarded  by  the  English, 
the  Chinese  government  resolved  on  the  adoption 
of  some  extraordinary  measures  to  put  an  end  to 
that  illicit  trade.  Accordingly,  commissioner  Lin 
issued  a  proclamation  in  March,  1839,  requiring  the  opium  con- 


BURNING    OF    THE    ENGLISH    FACTORIES    BT    THE    CHINE8E. 


THE  OPIUM  WAR  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  CHINA.  719 

tained  on  board  the  British  vessels,  or  in  their  store-houses,  to 
be  given  up.  After  vainly  protesting  against  this  measure,  the 
British  merchants  were  compelled  to  comply,  and  20,283  chests 
of  opium  were  delivered  to  the  Chinese,  and  by  them  destroyed 
or  rendered  useless  ;  and  in  a  riot  the  English  factories  were 
burnt.  In  July,  a  street  fight  occurred  between  some  English 
sailors  and  a  number  of  Chinese,  in  which  one  of  the  latter  was 
killed.  On  the  refusal  of  Captain  Elliott  to  surrender  the 
offender,  Lin  issued  another  proclamation,  forbidding  the  people 
to  furnish  the  English  with  provisions,  who,  in  consequence, 
were  obliged  to  leave  the  land  and  remain  on  ship-board.  Im- 
pelled by  hunger,  the  English  next  made  an  attempt  to  take 
provisions  from  the  inhabitants  by  force.  In  vain  did  Captain 
Elliott  endeavour  to  re-establish  a  good  understanding  between 
the  parties  ;  Lin  insisting,  as  a  necessary  condition,  that  the 
masters  of  all  vessels,  before  entering  the  river  of  Canton,  should 
make  a  declaration  that  they  had  no  opium  on  board,  and  that, 
in  the  event  of  a  search  being  made,  and  opium  being  found,  it 
should  be  confiscated,  and  the  individual  so  found  guilty  of 
smuggling  should  forfeit  his  life.  Elliott  would  not  agree  to 
these  terms,  and  skirmishes  were  constantly  occurring  between 
the  Chinese  and  small  parties  of  the  English  in  search  of  pro- 
visions, until,  at  length,  on  the  7th  of  September,  a  fleet  of 
war-junks  attacked  the  British  armed  vessels,  but  were  repulsed 
with  considerable  loss  to  the  assailants.  War  was  now  declared 
by  the  British  government  against  China.  On  the  28th  of 
February,  1840,  an  attempt  was  made  to  set  fire  to  the  English 
vessels.  In  June,  Captain  Elliott  blockaded  the  river  of  Can- 
ton ;  and  in  August,  Admiral  Elliott  entered  the  river  Peiho, 
the  river  on  which  Pekin  is  situated,  and  so  alarmed  the  emperor, 
that  he  disavowed  the  acts  of  Lin  at  Canton,  and  appointed  a 
commissioner  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  the  English.  The  pro- 
mised negotiator  did  not  make  his  appearance  at  Canton  until 
the  29th  of  November ;  and  then  so  little  progress  was  made 
in  the  drawing  up  of  the  treaty,  that  it  soon  became  evident  that 
it  was  the  intention  of  the  emperor  merely  to  amuse  the  English, 
and  to  keep  them  at  a  distance  from  his  capital.  Accordingly, 
Commodore  Bremer,  who  now  commanded  the  British  naval 
force,  on  the  9th  of  January,  1841,  attacked  the  forts  at  the 
Bocca  Tigris,  and  inflicted  much  damage  upon  the  enemy.     This 


720  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

induced  the  commissioner  to  hasten  his  operations,  and  on  the 
20th  of  January,  a  preliminary  treaty  was  signed,  very  favour- 
able to  the  English.  A  month,  however,  having  elapsed,  with- 
out any  indication  of  its  ratification  by  the  Chinese  being  mani- 
fested, hostilities  recommenced  on  the  25th  of  February.  The 
forts  at  the  Bocca  Tigris  were  taken,  a  fleet  of  junks  destroyed, 
and,  on  the  18th  of  March,  the  English  appeared  before  Canton, 
and  established  themselves  in  the  suburb  containing  the  fac- 
tories. Then,  on  the  24th  of  May,  Major-general  Sir  Hugh 
Gough,  at  the  head  of  twenty-five  thousand  men,  attacked  and 
defeated  the  Chinese  army  of  fifty  thousand,  commanded  by  the 
Tartar  general  Yeshan,  and  the  minister  Hu.  He  was  about  to 
storm  the  city,  when  the  Chinese  again  offered  to  negotiate. 
The  former  treaty,  very  little  modified,  was  again  agreed  upon, 
and  a  portion  of  the  indemnity  money  paid  to  the  English,  who 
consequently  withdrew  their  forces  to  Hong-kong ;  but  there 
new  difficulties  were  interposed  by  the  Chinese.  Captain  Elliott 
was  now  superseded  in  the  office  of  superintendent  by  Sir  Henry 
Pottinger,  and  Admiral  Parker  was  appointed  to  the  command 
of  the  fleet.  An  expedition  was  fitted  out  from  Hong-kong  in 
August,  1841,  and  the  cities  of  Amoy,  Chusan,  Chinhae,  and 
Ningpo  were  captured.  On  the  18th  of  May,  1842,  the  expedi- 
tion captured  Chapoo,  and  on  the  13th  of  June  reached  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Woosung  with  the  Yang-tse-kiang,  where  the  enemy 
had  erected  batteries,  and  mounted  two  hundred  and  fifty  can- 
non. The  position  was,  nevertheless,  carried  in  two  hours.  The 
city  of  Shang-hae  was  taken  on  the  19th  of  June,  and  on  the 
21st  of  July  the  British  captured  by  assault  the  city  of  Ching- 
kian-foo.  The  moral  effect  produced  by  the  capture  of  this  place 
was  decisive ;  and  when,  on  the  6th  of  August,  they  presented 
themselves  before  the  great  city  of  Nanking,  the  second  in  the 
empire,  an  armistice  was  earnestly  solicited  by  the  Chinese  ;  en- 
voys arrived  from  the  emperor,  and  the  war  was  brought  to  a 
close  by  a  treaty  ratified  on  the  26th  of  August,  1842.  By  the 
provisions  of  this  treaty,  the  emperor  consented  to  indemnify 
the  English  for  the  expense  of  the  war,  by  the  payment  of 
$21,000,000,  the  entire  cession  of  the  island  of  Hong-kong,  and 
the  freedom  of  trade  at  the  ports  of  Shanghai,  Ning-po,  Fou- 
tcheou,  Amoy,  and  Canton. 


91 


3L 


WAR  BETWEEN  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  MEXICO.        723 


GENERAL    TATIOE. 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN   THE   UNITED   STATES 
AND  MEXICO. 

EFORE  the  breaking  out 
of  hostilities  between 
Mexico  and  the  United 
States,  circumstances 
rendered  a  war  inevita- 
ble. In  February,  1845, 
resolutions  annexing  the 
republic  of  Texas  to  the 
United  States  passed 
congress.  Mexico  had 
never  acknowledged  the 
independence  of  Texas, 
but  looked  upon  it  as  a 
rebellious  province.  The 
consequences  of  the  an- 
nexation to  the  United  States  were,  therefore,  easily  foreseen, 
and  measures  taken  to  provide  for  them.     Upon  the  receipt  of 


724  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 


CORPUS    CHRIST  I. 


the  news  of  the  adoption  of  the  annexation  resolutions  by  the 
Texan  convention,  Brigadier-general  Taylor,  with  about  two 
thousand  five  hundred  men,  was  ordered  to  take  a  position  at 
Corpus  Christi,  on  the  river  Nueces,  to  repel  any  invasion  of  the 
Mexican  forces.  The  "  Army  of  Observation,"  as  it  was  called, 
arrived  at  Corpus  Christi,  on  the  31st  of  July,  1845.  Early  in 
February  of  the  following  year,  General  Taylor  received  orders 
to  march  to  the  Rio  Grande  and  take  a  position  on  that  river. 
The  territory  between  the  Nueces  and  the  Rio  Grande  was  dis- 
puted, and  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  whatever  may  have  been 
the  prospect  of  war  before,  this  move  hastened  hostilities. 

The  American  army  reached  the  Rio  Grande  on  the  28th  of 
March,  1846.  A  large  force  of  Mexican  troops  were  collected 
at  Matamoras,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Ampudia.  Communications  between  the  two 
commanders  were  immediately  opened,  but  with  no  satisfactory 
result.  The  Mexicans  and  Americans  both  proceeded  to  erect 
defences.  A  strong  battery  was  constructed  directly  opposite  to 
Matamoras  by  the  Americans,  and  Matamoras  was  strongly 
fortified  by  Ampudia's  forces.     Several  slight  skirmishes  took 


WAR  BETWEEN  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  MEXICO.         725 


FORT    BROWN. 


place  about  the  middle  of  April,  between  bands  of  Mexicans  -who 
had  crossed  the  river,  and  American  parties.  Colonel  Cross  was 
murdered  by  one  of  the  guerillas,  and  Lieutenant  Porter  and  a 
private  killed  in  a  skirmish.  Leaving  Major  Brown  with  a  small 
body  of  troops  in  the  fort  opposite  Matamoras,  General  Taylor 
marched  to  Point  Isabel,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande,  which 
he  reached  on  the  2d  of  May,  without  opposition. 

On  the  3d  of  May,  at  daybreak,  the  Mexicans  opened  their 
fire  upon  the  fort,  and  it  was  returned  with  effect,  the  heavy  gun 
batteries  of  the  Mexicans  being  silenced  in  thirty  minutes.  The 
throwing  of  shells  was  incessantly  continued,  however,  and  the 
little  band  in  the  fort  were  in  great  peril.  Receiving  informa- 
tion that  the  Mexicans  had  crossed  the  Rio  Grande,  and  were 
posted  between  Point  Isabel  and  Matamoras,  General  Taylor 
resolved  to  march  and  fight  the  enemy,  no  matter  what  might 
be  their  strength.  Accordingly,  he  started  at  three  o'clock,  on 
the  7th  of  May,  and  on  the  8th,  at  two  o'clock,  found  the 
enemy  in  position,  in  front  of  a  chaparral,  which  lies  opposite  to 
the  timber  of  a  stream  called  Palo  Alto.  General  Taylor  im- 
mediately formed  his  line  of  battle,  although  it  was  clear  the 
Mexicans  numbered  double  his  force.  The  Mexicans  opened 
the  action  by  a  fire  from  their  artillery,  and  it  was  returned  in 

3l2 


726 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


IEGE    OF    FORI     BROWN. 


a  rapid  and  effective  manner  by  the  Americans.  Then  the  fight 
commenced  in  earnest,  and  lasted  till  darkness  dropped  upon 
the  scene.  The  Mexicans  were  driven  from  their  position,  with 
a  severe  loss,  and  the  Americans  encamped  upon  the  field. 

On  the  9th,  General  Taylor  packed  the  heavy  trains,  collected 
the  enemy's  wounded  in  hospital,  buried  their  dead,  arranged 
his  own  wounded,  and  moved  on  in  pursuit  of  the  Mexicans. 
They  had  taken  post  in  a  strong  position,  in  the  chaparral,  on 
each  side  of  the  bed  of  a  stream  called  Resaca  de  la  Palma, 
with  their  artillery  on  the  road  at  the  crossing.  General  Taylor 
brought  up  his  troops  by  battalions,  and  posted  them  with  brief 
orders  to  find  the  enemy  with  the  bayonet,  and  placed  the  ar- 
tillery where  they  could  act  on  the  road  ;  the  dragoons  being 
held  in  reserve.  The  battle  was  a  series  of  brilliant  skirmishes 
and  heavy  shocks,  in  which  two  thousand  fighting  men,  General 
Taylor's  whole  force,  met  six  thousand,  overwhelmed  them  with 
the  precision  of  their  volleys  and  the  steady  coolness  of  the  bay- 
onet, and  drove  them  from  the  field  with  the  loss  of  their  artil- 
lery, baggage,  pack-mules,  fixed  ammunition,  and  near  two 
thousand  stand  of  muskets. 

The  total  loss  of  the  Americans  during  both  battles  was 


WAR  BETWEEN  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  MEXICO.  727 

thirty  killed,  and  about  one  hundred  and  forty  wounded.  But 
though  the  number  was  small,  it  included  some  of  the  most 
valuable  officers  in  the  army.  The  Mexican  loss  at  Palo  Alto 
is  set  down  by  themselves  at  four  hundred  and  fifty,  in  killed 
and  wounded;  at  Resaca  de  la  Palma,  the  number  of  killed, 
wounded,  and  prisoners  was  more  than  twice  that  number. 
Among  the  prisoners  was  General  La  Vega,  captured  during  a 
brilliant  charge  of  the  American  dragoons,  under  Colonel  May. 

While  the  battles  of  the  8th  and  9th  of  May  were  raging,  the 
Mexican  batteries  kept  up  a  constant  fire  upon  the  American 
fort  opposite  Matamoras,  but  the  heroic  little  force  that  defended 
it  suffered  but  little  ;  their  principal  loss  being  their  indomitable 
commander,  Major  Brown,  who  was  killed  by  the  bursting  of  a 
shell.  As  the  fugitives  from  the  field  of  Resaca  de  la  Palma 
arrived  at  Matamoras,  the  fire  ceased,  and  the  garrison  was  re- 
lieved by  the  arrival  of  General  Taylor. 

On  the  11th  of  May,  an  exchange  of  prisoners  took  place, 
and  Captain  Thornton  'and  his  command,  who  had  been  surprised 
and  captured  at  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  rejoined  the 
American  army.  On  the  15th,  Bariga,  a  town  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Rio  Grande,  on  the  Mexican  side,  was  taken  by  the  Ame- 
ricans without  opposition,  the  inhabitants  fleeing  at  their  ap- 
proach. At  sunrise,  on  the  17th,  General  Ampudia  signalized 
that  he  wished  to  parley.  He  requested  that  an  armistice  might 
be  granted,  but  General  Taylor  replied  that  it  was  too  late,  and 
on  the  18th,  the  American  forces  crossed  the  river,  and  entered 
Matamoras  without  opposition.  The  Mexican  general  retreated 
to  Reynosa,  with  all  his  forces. 

Although  in  possession  of  Matamoras,  General  Taylor  found 
himself  in  no  condition  to  advance.  He  lacked  both  troops  and 
means  of  transportation.  It  became  necessary,  therefore,  for 
him  to  remain  at  this  post  during  the  greater  part  of  the  sum- 
mer, waiting  for  the  means  to  prosecute  the  invasion. 

In  the  meantime,  Captain  McCulloch  with  the  Texan  rangers 
had  seized  and  occupied  the  Mexican  ports  of  Reynosa,  Camargo, 
and  Mier,  without  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  enemy.  It  was 
not  until  the  5th  of  August,  nearly  three  months  after  the  bat- 
tle of  Resaca  de  la  Palma,  that  General  Taylor  was  able  to  take 
up  his  line  of  march  from  Matamoras  for  Camargo.  On  ar- 
riving at  that  place,  General  Worth  was  detached  to  San  Juan 


728  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

while  Captain  Wall  occupied  Reynosa,  and  General  Twiggs  had 
been  left  in  command  of  Matamoras.  Towards  the  end  of 
August,  General  Worth  was  ordered  to  advance  to  Seralvo  and 
there  to  await  further  orders.  From  this  port  he  sent  advices 
to  General  Taylor  on  the  5th  of  September,  that  Monterey  had 
just  been  reinforced  by  the  arrival  of  three  thousand  men  under 
General  Ampudia,  thus  increasing  the  garrison  to  four  thousand. 

This  important  information  determined  General  Taylor  to  ad- 
vance immediately  and  attack  Monterey.  He  accordingly  took 
up  his  line  of  march  towards  Seralvo  on  the  7th,  leaving  General 
Patterson  in  command  of  all  the  forces  stationed  between  Ca- 
margo  and  Matamoras. 

Disencumbering  his  troops  of  all  unnecessary  baggage,  and 
sending  forward  his  supplies  on  pack-mules  to  Seralvo,  Taylor 
now  hastened  eagerly  on  to  the  next  scene  in  his  grand  drama. 
On  his  arrival  at  Seralvo,  instead  of  waiting  for  further  rein- 
forcements or  fresh  orders  before  attacking  so  formidable  a  fort 
with  so  light  a  force,  he  pushed  forward  for  Monterey  with  his 
main  body,  consisting  of  but  little  more  than  six  thousand  men. 

The  character  and  extent  of  the  work  the  Americans  had 
before  them  may  be  inferred  from  a  short  sketch  of  Monterey : — 
The  town  is  seated  in  a  beautiful  valley,  bosomed  among  lofty 
and  imposing  mountains  on  the  north,  east,  and  south,  and  open 
to  a  plain  on  the  west,  fortified  with  thick  stone  walls  in  the  old 
Spanish  fashion  of  another  century,  with  all  the  apparatus  of 
ditches  and  bastions,  and  lowering  upon  them  with  deep-mouthed 
.  cannon.  From  their  elevated  position  the  Americans  could  see 
in  part  what  they  had  already  learned  from  spies  and  deserters, 
that  the  flat-roofed  stone  houses  of  the  city  itself  had  been  con- 
verted into  fortifications.  Every  street  was  barricaded,  and 
every  housetop  was  bristling  with  musketry.  On  one  side  the 
Americans  could  see  the  Bishop's  Palace,  a  strong  fort  well  gar- 
risoned ;  on  the  other,  redoubts  well  manned ;  and  in  the  rear  of 
all,  a  river. 

The  attack  on  Monterey  began  on  the  20th  of  September.  The 
Americans  were  divided  into  two  columns ;  one,  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Taylor,  designed  to  attack  the  front  of  the 
town,  and  the  other,  under  General  Worth,  to  attack  the  Bishop's 
Palace  and  the  other  strong  works  in  that  quarter.  The  siege 
lasted  three  days,  and  was  characterized  by  the  display  of  the 


WAR  BETWEEN  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  MEXICO.  729 


STORMING     OF    MONTEREY. 


most  undaunted  bravery  on  the  part  of  the  American  soldiers, 
and  the  most  consummate  skill  on  the  part  of  the  commanding 
general.  One  by  one  the  various  posts,  deemed  impregnable, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  besiegers,  and  they  even  attained  strong- 
positions  in  the  city  before  the  Mexican  generals  capitulated. 

The  great  strength  of  the  defences  of  Monterey  was  not  fully 
seen  until  after  the  capture.  The  town  and  works  were  armed 
with  forty-two  pieces  of  cannon,  well  supplied  with  ammunition, 
and  manned  with  a  force  of  at  least  seven  thousand  troops  of 
the  line,  and  from  two  to  three  thousand  irregulars.  The  whole 
force  of  the  assailants  was  about  six  thousand  five  hundred  men, 
with  only  one  ten-inch  mortar  suitable  for  a  siege.  The  loss  of 
the  Americans  was  twelve  officers,  and  one  hundred  and  eight 
men  killed,  and  thirty-one  officers  and  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  wounded. 

By  the  terms  of  the  capitulation,  the  Mexican  forces  were  al- 
lowed to  retain  certain  of  their  arms,  and  were  to  retire,  within 
seven  days  from  the  capitulation,  beyond  a  line  formed  by  the 
pass  of  the  Riconada,  the  city  of  Linares,  and  San -Fernando  de 
Preras.  The  forces  under  General  Taylor  were  not  to  advance 
92 


730  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 

beyond  that  line  before  the  expiration  of  eight  weeks,  or  until 
orders  were  received  from  the  respective  governments. 

After  establishing  his  head-quarters  in  Monterey,  General 
Taylor  detached  Brigadier-general  Worth  with  twelve  hundred 
men  and  eight  pieces  of  artillery  to  Saltillo.  Brigadier-general 
Wool  and  the  column  under  his  command,  twenty-four  hundred 
strong,  with  six  pigces  of  artillery,  were  ordered  to  occupy  the 
town  of  Parras,  a  small  but  beautiful  place  seventy  miles  north- 
east of  Saltillo.  Saltillo,  to  which  Worth  was  ordered,  is  about 
seventy  miles  from  Monterey,  and  at  an  elevation  of  about  two 
thousand  feet  above  the  latter  place.  General  Patterson  having 
been  withdrawn  on  an  expedition  to  act  in  conjunction  with  the 
fleet  in  the  gulf,  General  Butler  was  ordered  to  take  the  command 
of  the  reserve.  Saltillo  and  Parras  were  occupied  by  the  Ame- 
ricans without  any  opposition,  the  enemy  having  fallen  back  as 
far  as  San  Luis  Potosi. 

Santa  Anna  had  now  been  recalled  to  Mexico,  and  placed  at 
the  head  of  affairs,  and  Paredes  deposed.  Santa  Anna  was 
nominally  commander-in-chief  of  the  Mexican  armies — really 
dictator.  He  was  raising  a  formidable  army  to  resist  the  further 
advance  of  General  Taylor.  Before  December,  he  had  succeeded 
in  raising  twenty  thousand  men,  and  concentrating  them  at  San 
Luis  Potosi,  which  he  strongly  fortified,  and  filled  with  military 
stores.  After  awaiting  the  advance  of  this  formidable  force  for 
some  time,  General  Taylor  determined  to  meet  them  on  their  own 
ground. 

On  the  30th  of  December,  General  Taylor  received  intelligence 
that  General  Winfield  Scott  had  been  ordered  to  Mexico,  to  take 
command  of  an  expedition  against  Vera  Cruz,  and  the  castle  of 
San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  and  a  requisition  for  nearly  all  the  regular 
troops  under  his  command.  General  Worth  was  also  detached, 
and  proceeded  to  join  General  Scott.  This  deprivation  of  his 
best  troops  was  a  source  of  regret  to  General  Taylor,  and  it  was 
thought  would  force  him  to  act  upon  the  defensive  for  a  time. 
But  by  February,  1847,  he  had  received  reinforcements  raising 
his  whole  army  to  about  six  thousand  men. 

Anticipating  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  Santa  Anna,  an  at- 
tempt to  possess  himself  of  the  line  of  posts  between  himself 
and  Matamoras,  he  determined  to  advance  and  fight  a  pitched 
battle  with  him.     Accordingly,  on  the  20th  of  February,  we 


WAR  BETWEEN  MEXICO  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES.         731 


GENERAL     WOOL. 


find  him  encamped  at  Agua  Nueva,  eighteen  miles  south  of  Sal- 
tillo,  and  sending  out  videttes,  who  return  with  intelligence  that 
Santa  Anna  is  within  thirty  miles  of  his  position,  rapidly  ad- 
vancing with  some  twenty  thousand  men  against  his  forlorn  hope 
of  five  thousand  four  hundred. 

On  receiving  this  intelligence,  General  Taylor  determined  to 
choose  his  own  battle-ground,  and  accordingly  fell  back  to  an 
admirable  position  in  front  of  Buena  Vista,  seven  miles  south  of 
Saltillo. 

The  features  of  the  ground  of  Taylor's  position  were  such  as 
nearly  to  paralyze  the  artillery  and  cavalry  of  an  assailant, 
while  his  infantry  could  not  derive  all  the  advantage  of  nume- 
rical superiority. 

On  the  22d  of  February,  the  advance  of  the  Mexican  forces 
came  in  sight,  and  Santa  Anna,  the  commanding  general,  sent 


732 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


TAYLOR     AT     BUESA     VISTA. 


General  Taylor  a  summons  to  surrender,  which  he,  of  course, 
declined,  although  Santa  Anna  informed  him  that  he  was  sur- 
rounded by  twenty  thousand  men.  The  Mexicans  then  opened 
a  fire  from  a  mortar,  but  without  execution  ;  and  then  made  a 
demonstration  on  the  left  of  the  Americans,  pouring  a  tremen- 
dous fire  into  their  ranks.  The  skirmishing  was  kept  up  until 
dark,  when  General  Taylor,  leaving  General  Wool  in  command, 
returned  to  Saltillo.     The  troops  bivouacked  on  the  field. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  23d,  the  battle  commenced  by 
an  attempt  of  the  Mexicans  to  outflank  the  left  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, where  the  Kentucky  riflemen  were  posted.  They  main- 
tained their  position  against  a  vastly  superior  force,  and  were 
well  supported  by  the  artillery.  But  they  were  overwhelmed 
and  driven  back,  with  the  loss  of  their  guns.  The  Mexicans 
then  poured  their  masses  of  infantry  and  cavalry  along  the 
base  of  the  mountain  on  the  left,  and  were  gaining  the  rear  in 
great  force,  when  General  Taylor  arrived  on  the  field,  and  by 
his  skilful  and  prompt  measures,  the  fortune  of  the  day  turned. 
After  a  bloody  conflict,  the  Mexicans  were  driven  back.  An- 
other body  of  them  gained  the  rear  of  the  Americans,  and  were 
there  cut  off  from  the  main  army.  A  device  of  Santa  Anna,  by 
which  he  secured  time  enough  for  them  to  rejoin  him,  was  all 


WAR   BETWEEN   THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO.        733 

that  saved  them  from  annihilation.  A  last  and  desperate 
attempt  was  made  to  force  the  Americans  from  their  position  ; 
and  the  determined  bravery  of  the  Americans,  and  the  vast 
number  of  the  Mexicans,  made  the  conflict  extremely  obstinate 
and  bloody.  The  splendid  artillery  of  the  Americans  was  served 
with  such  effect  that  whole  ranks  of  the  enemy  were  swept  by 
it,  and  at  length  they  fell  back.  Night  put  an  end  to  the  bat- 
tle. The  Americans  sank  down  exhausted  upon  the  field,  but 
their  untiring  general  made  every  preparation  for  an  attack 
the  next  morning. 

When  the  morning  came,  it  was  found  Santa  Anna  had  re- 
treated, evidently  satisfied  with  his  previous  efforts.  No  pursuit 
was  attempted,  it  being  considered  enough  to  have  maintained 
a  position  against  such  an  army.  The  whole  number  of  Ame- 
ricans engaged  at  Buena  Vista  was  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
four  officers,  and  four  thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty-five 
men,  of  which  number  only  four  hundred  and  fifty-three  were 
regular  troops.  The  strength  of  the  Mexican  army  is  set  down 
at  fifteen  thousand  infantry,  and  six  thousand  cavalry.  The 
loss  of  the  Americans  was  two  hundred  and  sixty-seven  killed, 
four  hundred  and  fifty-six  wounded,  and  twenty-three  missing. 
The  loss  of  the  Mexicans  is  said,  by  Santa  Anna,  to  have  been 
at  least  fifteen  hundred  ;  more  than  five  hundred  of  their  killed 
were  left  upon  the  field  of  battle.  The  victory  must  be  attri- 
buted, in  great  part,  to  the  artillery  of  the  American  army,  which 
saved  the  day  at  three  different  times  ;  but  the  genius  of  the 
commanding  general  was  conspicuous  from  the  choice  of  position 
till  the  close  of  the  battle,  and  to  his  coolness  and  intrepidity, 
resources  and  skill,  which  inspired  confidence  in  the  men,  must 
be  allowed  a  due  consideration.  In  spite  of  the  great  exertions 
of  the  veteran  General  Wool,  it  was  clearly  evident  in  the  early 
part  of  the  day,  that  without  General  Taylor  the  battle  would 
have  been  lost. 

The  subsequent  movements  of  the  army  under  General  Tay- 
lor are  not  of  sufficient  importance  to  warrant  an  extended  men- 
tion. After  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista,  the  greater  part  of  the 
army  encamped  upon  that  bloody  field,  under  the  command  of 
General  Wool;  the  rest,  under  General  Taylor,  encamped  at 
Walnut  Springs,  four  miles  from  Monterey. 

An  expedition  against  the  ports  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  having 

3  M 


734 


INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 


been  determined  upon  by  the  United  States  government,  Major 
General  Scott  was  ordered  to  take  command  of  the  troops  raised 
for  that  purpose.  He  reached  the  seat  of  war,  January  1st, 
1847.  By  February,  the  troops  under  his  command  amounted 
to  more  than  eleven  thousand  men.  The  proposed  object  of 
attack  was  the  city  of  Vera  Cruz  and  the  castle  of  San  Juan 
d'Ulloa.  The  fleet  under  Commodore  Conner  was  to  co-ope- 
rate. This  castle  is  situated  on  a  bar  in  front  of  Vera  Cruz, 
and  is  considered  the  strongest  fortress  in  America.  The  city 
was  also  strongly  fortified — being  surrounded  by  a  wall  defended 
by  towers. 

Early  in  March,  the  American  army  at  Tampico  embarked  on 
board  of  the  gulf  squadron,  and  on  the  7th  reached  Anton 
Lizardo,  near  Vera  Cruz.  A  reconnoissance  of  the  coast  was 
made  by  General  Scott  and  Commodore  Conner,  and  a  portion 
of  the  beach  west  of  the  Isle  of  Sacrificios  was  selected  for 
landing  the  troops.  That  event  took  place  on  the  9th  of  March. 
No  resistance  was  met  with,  and  nearly  four  thousand  men  were 
landed  at  once.     Commodore  Conner  permitted  the  marines  to 


WAR  BETWEEN   THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO.        735 


VERA     CRUZ. 


join  the  artillery  upon  land.  The  time  from  the  9th  to  the  22d 
of  March  was  occupied  by  General  Scott  in  extending  his  line 
completely  round  to  the  beach  on  the  opposite  side  of  Vera 
Cruz,  in  landing  mortars,  and  in  general  preparation  for  a  siege. 
On  the  22d,  he  summoned  the  city  and  castle  to  surrender. 
Governor  Morales  replied,  that  he  had  prepared  for  a  vigorous 
defence,  and  therefore  declined.  The  bombardment  was  then 
commenced,  and  the  fire  being  returned  from  the  city  and  cas- 
tle, it  was  tremendous.  The  shells  of  the  Americans  told  with 
the  most  destructive  effect,  and  the  citizens  implored  the  governor 
to  surrender.  But  he  refused  to  do  so,  and  resigned  his  office ; 
and  General  Llandero  was  appointed  to  succeed  him.  He  im- 
mediately made  overtures  for  a  truce,  which  was  granted  on  the 
26th  of  March,  and  negotiations  entered  into,  which  resulted 
in  the  surrender  of  the  city  and  castle  to  the  American  forces. 
The  whole  garrison  became  prisoners  of  war,  and,  according  to 
the  terms  of  the  surrender,  marched  out  to  an  open  plain,  on 
the  29th,  stacked  their  arms,  and  then  proceeded  towards  the 
interior.     The  Americans   entered  the  city  amidst  the  strains 


736 


INCIDENTS    OF    MODERN    HISTORY. 


HARNEY'S     DRAGOON     FIGHT. 


of  their  national  music,  the  shouts  of  the  soldiery,  and  the 
booming  of  cannon,  both  from  fleet  and  castle. 

The  only  fight  that  occurred  during  the  siege  was  between 
a  body  of  dragoons,  under  Colonel  Harney,  and  a  greatly  supe- 
rior force  of  Mexican  lancers.  The  latter  were  put  to  flight, 
with  the  loss  of  nearly  one  hundred  killed  and  wounded.  The 
Americans  had  two  killed  and  nine  wounded.  The  loss  of  the 
Mexicans  in  the  city  during  the  whole  siege  is  not  known  pre- 
cisely. But  it  is  certain  that  it  was  very  severe.  The  destruc- 
tion of  property  was  also  great. 

After  the  fall  of  Vera  Cruz,  General  Scott,  having  made  the 
necessary  dispositions  for  garrisoning  the  place,  took  up  his  line 
of  march  with  the  main  body  of  the  army  for  the  city  of  Mexico. 
General  Twiggs's  division  formed  the  van-guard,  and  those  of 
Worth  and  Patterson  followed  several  days  after. 

On  the  17th  of  April,  the  army  approached  the  celebrated 
pass  of  Sierra  Gordo,  always  reputed  to  be  impregnable,  and 
which  was  now  strongly  fortified,  with  seven  batteries  so  ar- 
ranged as  to  protect  each  other.  The  position  was  held  by 
General  Santa  Anna,  a  host  of  other  Mexican  generals,  and  the 
flower  of  the  national  army,  twenty  thousand  strong.  They 
were  expected  to  make  a  desperate  stand  against  the  eleven 
thousand  Americans  who  were  advancing  towards  the  capital. 


WAR   BETWEEN  THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO.        737 


BATTLE    OF     SIERRA     GORDO. 


General  Scott,  having  reconnoitred  the  enemy's  position,  in- 
stantly decided  on  his  plan  of  operations.     This  plan,  formed 
with  the  skill  of  a  master,  was  executed  with  all  the  precision 
that  the  general  could  require.     The  attack  began  on  the  18th 
of  April,  early  in  the  morning.     The  troops  were  all  in  position 
before  daylight.     The  whole  line  of  the  Mexican  intrenchments 
and  batteries  was   attacked  in  front   and  turned   at  the  same 
time.     The  troops  advanced  amidst  the  most  deadly  and  tre- 
mendous fire,  without  hesitation,  and  before  two  o'clock,  p.  m., 
the  Mexicans  were  driven  from  their  works  and  pursued  with 
vigour.     Their  whole  force  was  routed,  and  Santa  Anna  came 
near  being  captured.     About  three  thousand  men  laid  down 
their  arms,  with  the  usual  proportion  of  field  and  company  offi- 
cers, besides  five  generals — a  sixth  was  killed.     According  to 
General  Scott's  official  desp'atch,  the  army  was  "  embarrassed 
with  the  results  of  the  victory."     Nearly  all  the  prisoners  were 
released  on  parole,  and  the  private  effects  captured  were  restored 
to  their  owners,  and  the  small  arms  and  some  ammunition  de- 
stroyed.     The  force  of  the  Americans   at   Sierra  Gordo  was 
about  eight  thousand  five  hundred.     Their  loss  was  thirty-three 
officers  and  three  hundred  and   ninety-eight  men — total,  four 
93  3  m  2 


738  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

hundred  and  thirty-one,  of  whom  sixty-three  were  killed.  The 
loss  of  the  Mexicans  in  killed  and  wounded  was  never  known, 
but  during  the  battle  it  no  doubt  equalled  their  antagonists,  and 
in  the  retreat  was  greatly  augmented  by  the  slaughter  committed 
among  the  fugitives  by  Harney's  dragoons. 

On  the  same  day  that  the  victory  of  Sierra  Gordo  was  achieved, 
the  town  of  Tuspan  was  captured,  with  but  slight  resistance,  by 
a  portion  of  the  gulf  squadron.  On  the  following  day  Twiggs 
entered  Jalapa,  in  pursuit  of  the  flying  enemy.  On  the  same 
day,  and  the  following,  the  Mexicans  abandoned  the  strong  post 
of  La  Hoya ;  and  on  the  22d,  General  Worth  entered  the  strong 
town  and  castle  of  Perote.  This  fortress  is  one  of  the  most 
formidable  in  Mexico.  It  contained  fifty-four  pieces  of  cannon, 
bronze  and  iron  mortars,  eleven  thousand  cannon-balls,  fourteen 
thousand  bombs,  and  five  hundred  muskets,  all  of  which  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Americans. 

On  the  15th  of  May,  General  Worth  approached  the  city  of 
Puebla.  He  was  met  by  a  party  of  lancers,  supposed  to  be  led 
by  Santa  Anna,  with  whom  a  skirmish  ensued,  in  the  plains  of 
Amasoca.  After  losing  a  few  men,  the  enemy  retreated,  and 
were  driven  into  the  streets  of  Puebla,  where  they  separated 
and  escaped. 

Thus,  in  less  than  two  months,  General  Scott  and  his  army 
had  captured  three  large  cities,  two  castles,  ten  thousand  men, 
more  than  seven  hundred  cannon,  mostly  new,  and  an  immense 
quantity  of  shells,  shot,  and  small  arms.  For  rapidity  of  exe- 
cution, these  achievements  have  scarcely  a  parallel,  except  in 
Napoleon's  first  Italian  campaign. 

After  the  fall  of  Vera  Cruz,  the  Mexican  government  author- 
ized the  organization  of  small  bands  of  citizens  and  villagers, 
armed  and  mounted.  They  were  termed  "guerilla  parties," 
and  being  composed  mostly  of  outlaws  and  robbers — the  dregs 
of  the  population — they  entered  upon  the  campaign  with  the 
avowed  determination  to  extend  rib  quarter  to  any  who  might 
fall  into  their  hands,  but  to  rob  and  murder  as  often  as  occa- 
sion offered.  Spreading  themselves  over  the  country  through 
which  the  route  of  the  Americans  extended,  they  seized  the 
mountain  fastnesses  and  strong  passes,  attacked  scouting  par- 
ties, intercepted  communications,  and  even  entered  garrisoned 


WAR   BETWEEN   THE    UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO.        739 

cities  at  night,  and  murdered  all  American  stragglers  within 
their  reach. 

These  attacks  of  the  guerillas  kept  the  region  between  Vera 
Cruz  and  Puebla  in  a  state  of  constant  alarm,  and  rendered 
travelling,  except  with  a  strong  escort,  in  the  highest  degree 
dangerous.  The  most  active  and  daring  of  these  partisans  was 
the  celebrated  Father  Jarauta,  a  priest,  who  had  organized  most 
of  the  parties,  and  who  seems  to  have  been  considered  as  their 
general  leader.  Vigilant  exertions  were  made  to  capture  him 
by  Captain  Walker,  and  General  Patterson,  who  was  then  sta- 
tioned at  Vera  Cruz,  but  without  success ;  and,  until  the  close 
of  the  war,  he  continued  to  arm  and  lead  different  bands,  whose 
rapid  and  fearless  movements  rendered  his  name  a  terror  in 
that  neighbourhood. 

General  Scott,  with  the  main  portion  of  the  army,  remained 
at  Puebla  until  early  in  August,  when  he  prepared  for  a  march 
upon  the  capital.  A  sufficient  garrison  was  left  in  the  city 
urder  Colonel  Child's.  On  the  7th,  Twiggs's  division,  preceded 
by  Harney's  brigade  of  cavalry,  moved  for  the  capital ;  and 
was  followed,  on  the  three  succeeding  days,  by  the  divisions  of 
Quitman,  Worth,  and  Pillow,  the  corps  being  at  no  time  more 
than  five  hours'  march,  or  supporting  distance,  apart. 

On  the  11th  of  August,  the  army  under  Scott  descended 
into  the  valley  of  Mexico,  the  different  divisions  nearing  each 
other  more  closely  than  they  had  done  in  any  part  of  the  march. 
A  careful  reconnoissance  of  the  strong  works  upon  the  direct 
road  to  Mexico,  with  the  character  of  the  ground,  determined 
General  Scott  to  avoid  it,  by  passing  round  the  western  and 
southern  shores  of  Chalco  and  Xochimilco,  at  the  foot  of  the 
hills  and  mountains.  This  march  round  Lake  Chalco  is  a  most 
striking  evidence  of  the  scientific  abilities  of  General  Scott.  Santa 
Anna  had  good  reason  to  believe  such  a  step  was  impossible. 
It  was  a  work  of  a  most  difficult  character,  but  it  enabled  the 
Americans  to  escape  the  terrible  batteries  of  Penon  and  Mexi- 
calzingo.  The  advance,  under  General  Worth,  reached  San 
Augustin  on  the  18th  of  August. 

The  strong  post  of  Contreras  was  the  first  object  of  attack. 
It  was  situated  on  the  rocks  bordering  the  western  side  of  the 
valley,  mounting  twenty-two  guns,  and  garrisoned  by  seven 
thousand  troops.     General  Smith  was  despatched  at  the  head 


f40 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


BATTLE    OF    CON'TRERA 


of  his  own  brigade,  Cadwalader's  and  a  rifle  regiment,  with 
orders  to  gain  the  rear  of  the  post ;  and,  after  encountering 
many  obstacles  from  the  nature  of  the  route,  and  being  exposed 
to  the  fire  of  the  Mexican  batteries,  he  succeeding  in  reaching 
the  village  of  Encelda.  There  he  was  joined  by  the  brigade  of 
Colonel  Riley,  and  the  whole  force  passed  a  stormy  night  with- 
out fires  or  shelter.  Their  whole  strength  was  only  three  thou- 
sand two  hundred  men  ;  and  there  were  at  least  eighteen  thou- 
sand of  the  Mexicans  in  the  neighbourhood.  At  three  o'clock, 
on  the  morning  of  the  20th,  silent  instructions  of  the  plan  of 
attack  having  been  given  to  the  officers,  the  Americans  started 
to  perform  their  work,  leaving  General  Shields,  with  the  New 
York  and  South  Carolina  volunteers,  who  arrived  very  oppor- 
tunely, in  command  of  the  village.  Colonel  Riley  led  the  ad- 
vance, and  as  he  reached  a  favourable  position,  he  formed  his 
men  into  two  columns  preparatory  to  the  assault.  He  then 
continued  his  march,  and,  arriving  in  full  view  of  the  Mexican 
rear,  they  opened  their  fire.  Throwing  forward  a  few  skir- 
mishers, he  shouted  to  his  men  to  follow,  and  rushed  to  the  fort, 
followed  by  his  whole  command.  This  charge,  in  the  face  of 
the  enemy's  fire,  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  actions  of  the 


WAR    BETWEEN   THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO.      741 


GENERAL     SHIELDS. 


war.  Through  a  destructive  storm,  Riley  hurried  his  shattered 
column,  and  finished  the  struggle  with  the  bayonet.  Every 
battery  in  the  fort  was  silenced ;  the  Mexicans  were  driven  in 
masses  from  the  walls,  and  were  soon  flying  in  every  direction. 
The  cavalry  outside  of  the  walls  were  attacked  at  the  same  time 
by  Major  Dimick,  and  routed  with  great  slaughter.  The 
guns  taken  by  Santa  Anna  at  Buena  Vista  were  recovered  by 
the  same  company  from  whom  they  had  been  taken.  Such  was 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  Americans,  that  shouts  rent  the  air  con- 
tinually, and  the  arrival  of  General  Scott,  who  joined  in  the 
shouts  of  the  soldiers,  added  to  the  hilarity  of  the  occasion. 

The  reports  of  the  Mexican  officers  leave  no  doubt  that  there 
was,  in  and  about  Contreras,  seven  thousand  regular  troops, 
under  General  Valencia,  and  a  reserve  of  ten  thousand  near 
Encelda,  under  the  command  of  Santa  Anna.     Their  loss  was 


742 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


GENERAL    WORTH. 


seven  hundred  killed,  a  large  number  wounded,  and  fifteen  pri- 
soners, including  several  generals.  The  Americans  numbered 
three  thousand  two  hundred  men,  without  guns  or  cavalry,  and 
yet  they  drove  twice  their  number  from  a  fort  thought  to  be 
impregnable,  and  captured  a  great  quantity  of  artillery  and 
ammunition.  The  attack  was  ably  planned  by  General  Smith, 
and  bravely  and  rapidly  executed  by  Riley  and  his  men. 

The  forces  were  now  disposed  for  an  attack  on  a  still  stronger 
position  than  Contreras.  The  whole  of  the  remaining  forces 
of  Mexico,  some  twenty-seven  thousand  men,  were  now  collected 
in  on  the  flanks,  or  within  supporting  distance  of  the  works,  at 
the  village  of  Churubusco.  The  principal  defences  were  a  for- 
tified convent,  and  a  strong  field-work,  (tete  de  pont,)  with 
regular  bastions  and  curtains,  at  the  head  of  a  bridge  over 
which  the  road  passes  from  San  Antonio  to  the  capital.     The 


WAR   BETWEEN   THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO.      743 

fortified  convent  was  warmly  attacked  by  Twiggs's  division,  and 
the  tete  de  pont  by  Worth  and  Pillow.  The  latter  was  a  formi- 
dable work ;  but  was  assaulted  and  carried  by  the  bayonet, 
after  a  short  but  bloody  struggle.  Three  field-pieces,  one  hun- 
dred and  ninety-two  prisoners,  and  a  large  quantity  of  ammuni- 
tion fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors.  After  the  capture  of 
the  tete  de  pont,  the  whole  strength  of  the  two  divisions  was 
directed  against  the  convent,  the  citadel  of  the  strong  line  of 
defence  at  Churubusco.  After  a  desperate  conflict  of  two  hours 
and  a  half,  signals  of  surrender  were  thrown  out  on  all  sides, 
though  not  before  some  of  the  infantry  had  entered  the  work. 
The  immediate  results  of  this  victory  were  seven  field-pieces, 
some  ammunition,  one  colour,  three  generals,  and  one  thousand 
two  hundred  and  sixty-one  prisoners.  While  the  attack  was 
being  made  on  the  convent  and  tete  de  pont,  General  Shields, 
with  two  brigades,  was  detached  to  the  left  to  turn  the  enemy's 
works,  and  prevent  the  escape  of  the  garrison.  The  battle  at 
that  point  was  long,  obstinate,  and  bloody ;  but  in  the  end  suc- 
cess crowned  the  determined  bravery  of  Shields's  troops,  and 
the  Mexicans  were  driven  from  the  field,  with  a  severe  loss  in 
killed  and  wounded,  and  three  hundred  and  eighty  of  them 
were  taken  prisoners.  This  completed  the  rout  of  the  Mexicans, 
and  they  were  pursued  to  within  a  mile  of  the  capital ;  a  com- 
pany of  dragoons  even  charged  them  up  to  the  nearest  gate. 

The  results  of  the  whole  day's  work  on  the  20th  of  August 
are  thus  summed  up  by  General  Scott : — 

"  It  (the  army)  has,  in  a  single  day,  in  many  battles  as  often 
defeated  thirty-two  thousand  men  ;  made  about  three  thousand 
prisoners,  including  eight  generals,  (two  of  them  ex-presidents,) 
and  two  hundred  and  five  other  officers  ;  killed  or  wounded  four 
thousand  of  all  ranks,  besides  entire  corps  dispersed  and  dis- 
solved ;  captured  thirty-seven  pieces  of  ordnance — more  than 
trebling  our  siege  train  and  field-batteries — with  a  large  num- 
ber of  small  arms,  a  full  supply  of  ammunition  of  every  kind. 
These  great  results  have  overwhelmed  the  enemy." 

The  loss  of  the  Americans,  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing, 
was  one  thousand  and  fifty-three.  The  whole  force  engaged 
during  the  day  was  only  eight  thousand  five  hundred  men. 

The  enthusiasm  of  the  Americans  did  subside  upon  the  en- 
tire rout  of  the  Mexican  forces  ;  but  many  were  anxious  to 


744 


INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 


CITY    OF    MEXICO    JROM    THE    CONVENT    OF    SAN    COSME. 


push  on  at  once  to  the  attack  upon  the  capital.  General  Scott, 
however,  knew  better  the  character  of  the  work  before  him,  and 
he  determined  to  recruit  his  men  before  attempting  it.  Most 
of  the  army  had  been  watching,  marching,  fasting,  and  fight- 
ing, for  more  than  thirty-six  hours,  and  the  garitas  and  the 
heights  of  Chapultepec  were  still  to  be  attacked  and  conquered 
before  the  capital  could  be  reached.  But  Scott  was  enabled  to 
have  a  still  longer  rest  than  he  imagined.  On  the  night  of  the 
20th,  a  flag  of  truce  came  from  the  Mexicans,  asking  for  an 
armistice  and  proposing  peace.  Ever  desiring  to  secure  a 
peace  and  save  life,  General  Scott  granted  the  armistice,  mak- 
ing, it  terminable  in  forty-eight  hours. 

On  the  21st,  commissioners  were  appointed  by  the  opposing 
commanders  to  negotiate  a  lengthened  armistice,  to  enable 
overtures  for  peace  to  be  received  and  considered.  On  the  22d, 
the  commissioners  met  at  Tacubaya,  and,  after  considerable 
discussion,  agreed  upon  sixteen  articles  for  the  duration  and 
regulation  of  an  armistice.  This  was  to  continue  as  long  as 
negotiations  were  engaged  in  by  the  two  governments,  or  until 
the  commander  of  either  army  gave  formal  notice  to  the  other 


WAR   BETWEEN   THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO.      745 

of  the  cessation  of  the  armistice,  and  for  forty-eight  hours 
afterwards.  Prisoners  were  to  be  exchanged  and  guaranties 
given  that  property  would  be  respected  by  the  invading  forces. 
The  articles  of  the  armistice  were  signed  by  both  commanders, 
and  commissioners  were  at  once  appointed  by  the  Mexican  go- 
vernment to  meet  and  open  negotiations  with  Mr.  N.  P.  Trist, 
the  American  commissioner,  who  had  accompanied  the  army  in 
its  march  to  the  capital.  They  met  on  the  25th  of  August ; 
but  the  question  of  boundary  prevented  the  desired  result. 
The  Mexican  commissioners  would  consent  to  any  thing  almost 
but  the  surrender  of  the  disputed  territory  in  Texas.  Nego- 
tiations were  continued  until  the  2d  of  September,  when  Mr. 
Trist  handed  in  his  ultimatum,  and  the  commissioners  adjourned 
to  meet  on  the  6th.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  events  occurred 
which  hastened  the  resumption  of  hostilities. 

About  the  1st  of  September,  some  infractions  of  the  truce 
took  place,  which  General  Scott  passed  by  upon  the  receipt  of 
apologies.  But  hearing  that  Santa  Anna  had  commenced  the 
strengthening  of  his  defences  in  the  city,  he  sent  him  a  note  on 
the  6th,  informing  him  that  hostilities  would  commence  the 
next  day  at  twelve  o'clock.  Having  learned  that  many  church- 
bells  had  been  sent  to  the  foundry  at  Gasa  Mata  to  be  cast 
into  guns,  and  that  immense  quantities  of  powder,  balls,  and 
other  military  stores,  were  arriving  at  the  same  place,  General 
Scott  determined  to  attack  it,  as  well  for  the  sake  of  the  guns 
and  stores  as  to  cut  off  all  communication  between  the  city  and 
the  castle  of  Chapultepec. 

The  position  of  the  Mexicans  at  the  Casa  Mata  and  the  Mo- 
lino  del  Rey  was  a  very  strong  one.  The  right  rested  upon 
the  foundry  and  fortress  of  Casa  Mata,  at  the  base  of  a  ridge. 
The  left  rested  on  the  strong  stone  buildings  of  Molino  del  Rey, 
directly  under  the  guns  of  the  castle.  Midway  between  the 
two  was  a  powerful  field-battery,  supported  on  both  sides  by 
infantry.  Most  of  the  defences  were  skilfully  masked,  and 
therefore  the  reconnoissance  of  them  by  General  Scott  was  far 
from  being  satisfactory.  The  plan  of  attack  was  arranged, 
however,  by  General  Scott,  and  General  Worth  was  appointed 
to  execute  it  at  the  head  of  three  thousand  two  hundred  men. 

The  troops  started  at  three  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the 
8th  of  September,  and  so  well  was  all  arranged  that  they  were 
94  3N 


746  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

in  all  their  appointed  positions  by  daylight.  The  report  of  the 
heavy  guns,  very  soon  after  the  dawn  of  day,  gave  the  signal 
for  the  assault.  So  heavy  were  the  discharges,  that  in  a  short 
time  masses  of  masonry  fell  with  tremendous  noise,  and  the 
whole  line  of  intrenchments  began  to  shake.  The  Mexicans 
returned  the  fire  in  rapid  succession,  unfolding  at  intervals  bat- 
teries and  systems  of  defence  of  which  their  enemies  had  before  no 
knowledge.  Meanwhile,  Major  Wright,  at  the  head  of  the  as- 
saulting party,  dashed  down  the  slope  of  an  eminence  upon  which 
he  was  posted,  amid  the  shouts  of  the  Americans.  At  the  same 
time,  the  Mexicans  opened  their  central  batteries  with  terrible 
effect,  and,  as  Wright  led  on  his  men  to  the  attack,  the  storm 
seemed  to  threaten  their  entire  destruction.  But  they  rushed 
on,  gained  the  lines,  drove  infantry  and  artillery  before  them 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  seized  the  large  field-batteries, 
drove  off  the  cannoneers,  and  trailed  its  guns  upon  the  retreat- 
ing masses.  But,  after  retreating  a  short  distance,  the  Mexi- 
cans suddenly  halted,  rallied,  and,  seeing  the  small  force  by 
which  they  were  attacked,  returned  to  the  conflict  with  new 
energy.  The  little  party  was  almost  overwhelmed  by  the 
masses  of  the  Mexicans,  and  eleven  out  of  the  fourteen  officers 
composing  the  command,  and  privates  in  proportion,  were 
struck  down  by  a  tremendous  fire.  The  party  was  thrown 
into  confusion;  but  General  Worth  ordered  up  Cadwalader's 
brigade  and  the  light  battalion,  and  these  troops,  coming 
into  action  at  a  seasonable  moment,  saved  the  remnant  of 
Wright's  men.  The  struggle  was  obstinate,  but  short.  The 
Mexicans  were  again  routed,  and  their  central  works  fully  car- 
ried and  occupied.  The  attack  was  equally  successful  at  the 
left,  on  Molino  del  Rey.  The  works  were  carried,  and  the 
Mexicans  driven  towards  Chapultepec.  The  Casa  Mata  was 
found  to  be  a  far  stronger  work  than  first  supposed,  and  the  as- 
sailants were  driven  back  with  the  loss  of  at  least  one-third  of 
their  number.  But  the  capture  of  the  other  works  enabled  the 
Americans  to  concentrate  their  strength,  and  the  enemy  were 
forced  to  abandon  it  after  a  short  but  destructive  fire.  Every 
part  of  the  defences  was  thus  in  possession  of  the  assailants. 

The  greatness  of  this  achievement  may  be  made  apparent 
from  a  statement  of  the  strength  of  the  opposing  forces  and 
the'  results  of  the  victory.     The  entire  line  of  strong  fortresses 


V 


WAR  BETWEEN   THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO.      749 

captured  was  defended  by  fourteen  thousand  men,  with  all  the 
means  necessary  for  defence  ;  yet  they  were  carried  by  three 
thousand  two  hundred  men.  The  loss  of  the  Mexicans  was 
about  three  thousand,  exclusive  of  a  great  number  who  deserted 
after  the  rout.  Eight  hundred  prisoners,  including  fifty-two 
commissioned  officers,  were  taken.  Generals  Valdarez  and 
Leon,  the  second  and  third  in  command,  were  killed.  A  great 
quantity  of  stores  of  all  kinds  and  all  the  guns  fell  to  the  vic- 
tors. But  these  results  were  not  obtained  without  a  severe  loss 
on  the  part  of  the  assailants.  Nine  officers  and  one  hundred 
and  seven  men  were  killed ;  forty-nine  officers  and  six  hundred 
and  fifteen  men  wounded,  and  there  were  eighteen  rank  and 
file  missing. 

The  capture  of  the  works  at  Molino  del  Rey  left  no  obstruc- 
tion to  the  attack  on  the  city  but  the  castle  of  Chapultepec. 
This  fortress  was  now  cut  off  from  all  immediate  communica- 
tion with  the  city.  It  was  on  a  natural  mound  of  great  height, 
strongly  fortified  at  its  base,  acclivities,  and  passes.  Besides 
a  numerous  garrison,  it  contained  the  military  college,  with  a 
large  number  of  students.  The  capture  of  this  castle  was  re- 
solved upon  by  General  Scott,  and  the  plan  devised  with  his 
usual  skill.  The  assault  was  the  first  of  a  series  of' brilliant 
achievements,  continuing  more  than  two  days,  ending  in  the 
capitulation  of  the  city,  to  which  General  Scott  gave  the  name 
of  the  battle  of  Mexico.  We  must  content  ourselves  with  a 
brief  sketch  of  these  events,  the  intricacy  of  the  movements 
and  the  extent  of  the  battle  preventing  any  thing  like  a  detail 
of  them.  It  is  apparent,  however,  that  this  two  days'  fight 
was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  displays  of  the  science  and 
abilities  of  a  general  and  the  daring  and  heroism  of  soldiery 
to  be  found  in  the  annals  of  war. 

The  assault  upon  Chapultepec  began  early  on  the  12th  of 
September.  The  two  divisions  that  moved  to  the  attack  in 
different  directions  were  commanded  by  Generals  Quitman  and 
Pillow.  A  bombardment  and  cannonade  was  opened  upon  the 
castle  at  an  early  hour,  but  stopped  when  the  assault  com- 
menced. The  Mexicans  opened  all  their  batteries  as  the  Ame- 
ricans rushed  forward  to  the  att&ck,  and  the  fire  was  tremen- 
dous. But  the  assailants  pushed  on  up  the  broken  ascent,  over 
rocks  and  mines,  and  soon  carried  a  redoubt.     General  Pillow 

3  n2 


750 


INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


STORMING    OF    CHAPCLTEPEC. 


was  struck  down  by  a  grape-shot ;  but  he  was  carried  along 
with  his  party  up  the  height,  the  troops  being  led  by  General 
Cadwalader.  The  assault  was  rapidly  conducted,  and  the  men 
of  Pillow's  division  reached  the  castle  first.  Many  were  thrown 
from  the  walls ;  but  the  stream  that  followed  soon  took  their 
places,  and  planted  the  colours  of  the  United  States  on  the 
highest  walls.  The  other  division,  under  Quitman,  had  more 
serious  work.  The  batteries  and  works  at  the  foot  of  the  hill 
were  only  carried  after  a  desperate  struggle.  Seven  pieces  of 
artillery,  one  thousand  muskets,  and  five  hundred  and  fifty 
prisoners,  including  one  hundred  officers,  were  the  results  of  the 
victory  at  the  lower  batteries.  About  eight  hundred  prisoners, 
including  one  major-general  a'nd  six  brigadiers,  and  a  great 
number  of  inferior  officers,  were  captured  by  Pillow's  division. 
The  forces  in  and  around  Chapultepec  amounted  to  six  thousand 


WAR   BETWEEN   THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO.       751 

men,  under  the  veteran  General  Bravo.  Of  the  number,  eigh- 
teen hundred  were  either  killed,  wounded,  or  taken  prisoners. 

The  capture  of  Chapultepec  opened  to  the  American  army 
the  direct  road  to  the  western  and  southern  portions  of  the 
city,  which  points  now  became  the  objects  of  attack.  Aware 
of  the  importance  of  improving  upon  the  impression  made  upon 
the  enemy  by  so  heavy  a  loss,  General  Scott  determined  to 
waste  no  time,  but  to  press  on  immediately  to  the  decisive  as- 
sault. 

Two  great  routes  lead  from  Chapultepec  to  the  capital.  That 
on  the  right  enters  the  Belen  with  the  Piedad  road  from  the 
south ;  the  second,  obliquing  to  the  left,  intersects  the  great 
western  or  San  Cosme  road,  in  a  suburb  outside  the  San  Cosme 
gate.  Each  of  these  routes  is  an  elevated  causeway,  having 
a  double  road  on  the  sides  of  an  aqueduct  of  strong  masonry, 
of  great  height,  and  resting  on  open  arches  and  massive  pillars, 
affording  fine  points  both  for  attack  and  defence.  In  addition 
to  this,  the  sideways  of  both  aqueducts  were  defended  by  many 
strong  breastworks,  both  at  the  gates  and  before  reaching  them, 
the  whole  presenting  a  chain  of  breastworks,  every  link  of  which 
would  have  to  be  broken  before  the  city  could  be  entered. 

The  attack  upon  the  city  was  made  by  two  divisions.  One, 
under  General  Worth,  advanced  along  the  road  to  the  San 
Cosme  gate ;  the  other,  under  General  Quitman,  took  the  Ta- 
cubaya  road,  which  led  to  the  Belen  gate.  The  troops  of  both 
divisions  were  exposed  to  a  tremendous  fire  from  the  Mexican 
batteries ;  but  they  pressed  on  without  faltering,  and  battery 
after  battery  was  either  silenced  or  captured.  In  the  mean 
time,  as  part  of  the  plan  of  attack,  General  Twiggs  diverted 
the  attention  of  the  Mexicans  by  an  incessant  cannonade 
against  the  southern  side  of  the  city.  At  length  the  strong 
fortress  of  San  Cosme  was  carried  by  Worth  and  his  followers, 
and  shouts  announced  his  entrance  into  Mexico.  Quitman  met 
with  a  more  obstinate  resistance,  being  opposed  at  the  Belen 
gate  by  General  Santa  Anna  in  person.  The  ammunition  of  the 
advance  of  the  troops  gave  out,  and  they  were  exposed  to  a 
destructive  fire  until  the  deficiency  was  supplied.  The  garita 
was  carried  with  a  severe  loss,  and  then  darkness  fell  upon  the 
scene.  The  Mexicans  ceased  firing,  and  the  troops  of  Quit- 
man's division  set  about  erecting  batteries  to  maintain  their 


752 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


GENERAL    QUITMAN. 


position  within  the  city.  Worth  was  well  prepared  to  continue 
the  attack  ;  but  soon  after  his  heavy  guns  were  placed  in  a  fa- 
vourable position,  a  flag  came  from  the  municipality,  the  bearer 
of  which  stated  that  the  government  and  the  army  had  evacu- 
ated the  city.  All  firing  ceased  upon  the  receipt  of  this  flag. 
Worth's  loss  during  the  day  was  two  officers  killed  and  ten 
wounded,  with  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  rank  and  file,  killed, 
wounded,  and  missing.  Quitman's  loss  was  five  hundred  and  forty 
men,  of  whom  seventy-seven,  including  eight  officers,  were  killed, 
four  hundred  and  fifty-four  wounded,  and  nine  missing. 

On  the  morning  of  the  14th  of  September,  General  Scott 
gave  orders  to  Generals  Worth  and  Quitman  to  advance  cau- 
tiously towards  the  heart  of  the  city.  In  obedience  to  these 
orders,  Quitman  proceeded  to  the  grand  plaza  and  hoisted  the 
flag  of  the  United  States  upon  the  national  palace.     General 


WAR   BETWEEN   THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   MEXICO.       753 

Worth  halted  within  three  squares  of  the  goal  of  general  am- 
bition. The  remainder  of  the  army,  under  the  personal  direc- 
tion of  Major-General  Scott,  soon  followed  the  advanced  divi- 
sions, and  the  entrance  was  conducted  amid  the  sounds  of  the 
national  music  of  the  United  States.  Immediately  upon  en- 
tering, the  troops  were  fired  upon  from  the  roofs  of  houses, 
windows,  and  corners  of  the  streets,  by  a  large  number  of  con- 
victs, liberated  by  the  flying  government.  In  spite  of  the  ex- 
ertions of  the  Mexican  authorities,  the  fire  was  not  stopped 
until  many  of  the  Americans  were  killed  or  wounded.  Gene- 
ral Scott  issued  a  proclamation,  as  soon  as  he  was  fixed  in 
quarters,  enforcing  rules  of  order  upon  the  soldiers,  and  calling 
on  the  men  to  return  thanks  to  God  for  their  important  con- 
quests. General  Quitman  was  appointed  governor,  and  the 
citizens  returned  to  their  homes  satisfied  with  the  prospect  of 
peace. 

The  army  that  took  possession  of  the  city  of  Mexico  was 
only  six  thousand  strong  !  The  numerous  garrisons  and  the 
heavy  losses  in  battle  had  reduced  it  to  that  number.  This 
small  force  had  beaten  more  than  thirty  thousand  men,  posted 
in  the  strongest  positions  ;  killed  or  wounded  more  than  seven 
thousand  officers  and  men ;  taken  three  thousand  seven  hun- 
dred and  thirty  prisoners,  including  thirteen  generals  and  a 
large  number  of  inferior  officers ;  captured  one  hundred  and 
thirty-two  pieces  of  cannon,  twenty  thousand  small  arms,  and 
an  immense  quantity  of  ammunition  and  other  stores.  The 
most  celebrated  and  glorified  actions  which  have  occurred  in 
the  campaigns  of  Napoleon  or  Wellington  might  well  shrink  in 
comparison  with  the  display  of  generalship  on  the  part  of  Ge- 
neral Scott,  or  of  heroic  daring  and  rapidity  of  execution  on 
the  part  of  his  officers  and  men,  to  be  found  in  the  history  of 
these  battles. 

Upon  the  same  day  the  capital  was  taken,  the  small  force 
left  in  the  works  at  the  city  of  Puebla  was  besieged  by  the 
Mexicans,  and  the  fire  kept  up  until  the  arrival  of  General 
Santa  Anna  on  the  22d  of  September.  The  fire  was  returned 
by  the  besieged  with  considerable  effect,  though  the  small  force 
was  reduced  to  great  straits.  On  the  25th,  Colonel  Childs,  the 
commander  of  the  garrison,  was  summoned  to  surrender,  which 
he  declined.  Santa  Anna  then  opened  his  batteries  upon  the 
95 


754  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

American  works,  and  the  fire  was  so  extensive  and  constant 
that  the  most  untiring  vigilance  was  necessary  on  the  part  of 
the  garrison.  The  bombardment  and  cannonade  continued  with 
undiminished  energy  until  the  12th  of  October,  when  General 
Lane  arrived  with  reinforcements  for  the  wearied  garrison.  The 
siege  of  Puebla  lasted  forty  days,  and  was  the  longest  single 
military  operation  of  the  war.  The  result  will  appear  astonish- 
ing, when  it  is  remembered  that  it  was  sustained  by  about  four 
hundred  troops,  encumbered  with  eighteen  hundred  sick,  and 
deficient  in  supplies,  against  an  army,  according  to  Santa 
Anna's  statement,  eight  thousand  strong.  General  Lane  had 
several  encounters  with  the  enemy  on  the  road  from  Vera  Cruz, 
and  defeated  them,  although  in  much  superior  force.  In  one 
of  these  skirmishes,  Captain  Walker,  the  noted  Texan  ranger, 
was  killed.  The  guerillas  were  very  active,  and,  doubtless, 
their  partial  success  kept  up  the  spirits  of  the  Mexicans  and 
delayed  the  conclusion  of  a  peace. 

The  abortive  attempts  of  Mr.  Trist  to  establish  peace,  imme- 
diately after  the  battles  of  Contreras  and  Churubusco,  did  not 
terminate  his  mission  as  a  negotiator  with  the  Mexican  repub- 
lic. Efforts  were  made  both  by  himself  and  General  Scott, 
from  time  to  time,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  about  so  desira- 
ble a  result.  These  were  at  length  crowned  with  success.  In 
January,  the  general-in-chief  laid  before  the  Mexican  authori- 
ties the  basis  of  a  treaty,  similar  in  its  general  features  to  the 
one  formerly  rejected.  They  appointed  Luis  G.  Cuevas,  Ber- 
nardo Conto,  and  Miguel  Atristain,  as  commissioners.  Mr. 
Trist  acted  as  the  representative  of  the  United  States.  The 
negotiators  met  at  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  and,  after  a  reciprocal 
communication  of  their  respective  powers,  arranged  and  signed 
a  « treaty  of  peace,  friendship,  limits,  and  settlement,  between 
the  United  States  and  the  Mexican  republic." 

This  treaty  was  ratified,  with  some  amendments,  by  both 
governments,  and  by  it  the  United  States  became  possessed 
of  the  territories  of  California  and  New  Mexico,  paying  there- 
for fifteen  millions  of  dollars. 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1848  AND  '49.     755 


LOUIS    PHILIPPE. 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1848  AND  '49. 

HE  year  1848  will  ever  be  noted  as 
the  period  during  which  the  people  of 
the  majority  of  the  European  states 
made  the  most  desperate  and  the  most 
heroic  exertions  to  break  down  the 
power  of  their  kings,  or,  at  least,  to 
secure  constitutional  governments.  A 
general  calm  pervaded  Europe  dur- 
ing the  latter  part  of  1847,  as  if  the 
elements  of  a  storm  were  gathering 
their  strength  for  one  tremendous 
burst.  The  king  of  France,  under 
the  guidance  of  his  able  minister, 
Guizot,  directed  his  efforts  constantly  to  two  great  ends,  to  con- 
centrate as  much  power  in  the  executive  branch  of  the  govern- 
ment as  possible,  and  to  maintain  peace  with  the  European  na- 
tions. In  the  accomplishment  of  the  first  object,  the  rights  of 
the  people  were  subject  to  constant  and  growing  encroachment. 
Paris  was  strongly  fortified,  and  defended  by  more  than  a  hun- 
dred thousand  armed  troops.  Nothing  appeared  less  likely  than 
a  successful  revolution  of  the  people ;  and,  therefore,  the  con- 
vulsion which  soon  took  place  was  the  more  astonishing  to  the 


756  INCIDENTS   OP   MODERN   HISTORY. 

government  and  foreign  observer.  But  the  seeds  of  repub- 
licanism were  sown  deep  in  the  minds  of  the  lower  classes  of  the 
French  people,  and  all  the  excesses  of  the  Keign  of  Terror  could 
not  eradicate  their  hatred  of  tyranny,  or  their  belief  in  the 
republican  doctrines.  There  were  able  and  eloquent  men  who 
sided  with  them  in  their  opinions  and  feelings,  and  the  chamber 
of  deputies  was  the  scene  of  many  exciting  debates  upon  the 
measures  of  the  government. 

For  some  time  previous  to  the  revolution  of  February,  signs 
of  discontent  began  to  manifest  themselves.  A  desire  for  par- 
liamentary reform  pervaded  all  classes  of  the  people,  and  not 
less  than  sixty-two  reform  banquets  were  held  in  various  towns 
during  the  fall  of  1847.  But  none  of  these  demonstrations  was 
of  sufficient  magnitude  to  warrant  an  opinion  of  any  serious  re- 
sult, and  the  government  persevered  in  its  measures.  Em- 
boldened by  the  enthusiasm  displayed  at  these  banquets,  the 
leaders  of  the  opposition  resolved  on  holding  a  monster  banquet 
at  the  capital.  Then  the  government  became  alarmed,  and 
resolved  to  prevent  this  display  of  the  friends  of  liberty.  Mili- 
tary preparations  were  made  on  the  most  extensive  scale  ;  guns 
mounted  on  all  the  fortresses  around  Paris  ;  large  stores  of  am- 
munition provided,  and  no  means  of  preserving  order  neglected. 

On  the  29th  of  December,  1847,  the  chambers  met.  The 
debate  on  the  address  in  reply  to  the  king's  speech  occupied 
nineteen  sittings.  On  the  12th  of  February,  the  opposition 
members  refused  to  vote  on  the  address  ;  but  they  assembled  the 
next  day,  and  resolved  unanimously  not  only  on  attending  the 
monster  banquet,  but  also,  that  no  member  of  their  party  should 
participate  in  presenting  the  address  to  the  king,  even  if  chosen 
by  lot.  Before  adjourning,  they  fixed  upon  Tuesday,  the  22d 
of  February,  as  the  day  of  the  banquet,  and  invited  the  national 
guard  and  the  students  of  the  universities  to  be  present.  This 
increased  the  alarm  of  the  government,  and  the  national  guard 
were  forbidden  to  take  part  in  the  banquet.  But  this  measure 
only  increased  the  firmness  and  determination  of  the  opposition. 
Early  on  the  22d  of  February,  crowds  of  people  moved  towards 
the  Champs  Elysees,  and,  at  noon,  the  vast  area  between  the 
chamber  of  deputies  and  the  Madelaine  church  was  thronged  by 
about  thirty  thousand  people.  The  banquet  was  dropped  by  the 
popular  leaders,  but,  at  noon,  a  procession  was  formed,  which 


3o 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION   OF    1848   AND  '49. 


759 


proceeded  to  the  hotel  where  the  meetings  of  the  opposition  were 
held.  Another  body  of  the  people  succeeded  in  gaining  the 
interior  of  the  chamber  of  deputies.  These  the  troops  ejected, 
and  the  mob  retired,  shouting  «  Down  with  Guizot,''  and  singing 
the  Marseillaise  hymn  of  liberty.  All  efforts  to  disperse  the 
crowds  of  people  were  useless,  and  they  laughed  at  the  soldiers 
while  they  began  to  barricade  the  streets.  The  skirmishing 
continued  all  the  afternoon  :  but,  by  midnight,  all  Paris  was  in 
possession  of  the  soldiery.  The  next  morning,  the  conflict  com- 
menced in  earnest.  Barricades  were  erected  at  every  feasible 
time  and  place,  and  all  kinds  of  missiles  accumulated  for  use 
against  the  troops.  The  national  guard  declared  for  the  people, 
and  shouted  loudly  for  reform.  Several  times  during  the  day, 
were  the  national  guard  and  the  municipal  troops  on  the  point 
of  coming  in  collision.  The  latter,  however,  always  retreated. 
The  people  prevailed,  and  it  was  announced  that  Guizot  had 
dissolved  his  cabinet. 

For  a  while,  it  was  thought  peace  would  be  restored.  But 
about  ten  o'clock  at  night,  the  troops  of  the  line,  no  doubt  irri- 
tated by  the  people,  fired  upon  them  at  the  Hotel  des  Etrangers, 
and  fifty  of  their  number  fell  dead  or  wounded.  This  roused 
the  mob  to  seek  revenge,  in  the  same  manner  that  the  Boston 
massacre  hastened  the  American  revolution.     Now  burst  the 


760 


INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   IIISTORY. 


O  DILLON    BiBEOT. 


storm  so  long  pent  up.  The  work  at  the  barricades  was  re- 
newed with  ardour,  and  on  the  following  morning,  the  24th, 
there  was  not  a  single  leading  street  without  a  fortress.  The 
national  guards  were  called  to  their  posts,  and  the  defences  of 
the  municipal  guards  were  attacked  and  taken.  Meanwhile  the 
attempts  to  form  a  new  ministry  failed.  Even  the  appointment 
of  Thiers  could  not  calm  the  storm,  although  he  accepted  Odillon 
Barrot  as  one  of  his  cabinet.  The  whole  population  was  armed, 
and  by  twelve  o'clock,  on  Thursday  the  24th,  the  military  power 
had  passed  from  the  government.  The  dense  crowd  moved 
towards  the  Tuileries  and  the  Palace  Royal.  The  whole  of  that 
quarter  of  the  town  was  invested.  At  one  o'clock,  a  procla- 
mation was  posted,  declaring  that  the  king  had  abdicated  in 
favour  of  the  count  de  Paris,  with  the  duchess  of  Orleans  as 
regent. 

But  it  was  too  late.  Neither  the  dynasty  nor  its  palace  could 
be  saved  by  so  tardy  a  concession.  Red  flags  were  here  and 
there  hoisted  among  the  mob,  with  the  word  republic  rudely 
traced  upon  them.  The  ominous  cry  began  to  swell,  "  To  the 
gallows  with  Louis  Philippe  !"  At  half  past  twelve,  the  attack 
on  the  Palace  Royal  commenced,  and  for  an  hour  the  firing  upon 
it  was  excessive.     It  was  carried  by  storm,  and  at  the  same 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1848  AND  ;49.      763 

time  the  Tuileries  surrendered  without  resistance.  As  the 
people  entered  on  one  side,  Louis  Philippe  with  his  family  es- 
caped on  the  other.  The  national  guard  marched  in  with  their 
muskets  shouldered,  the  muzzle  downwards,  followed  by  thou- 
sands of  the  people.  A  general  ransacking  of  the  royal  apart- 
ments commenced ;  conducted  with  a  strange  mixture  of  order, 
enthusiasm,  and  inconsistency. 

In  the  chamber  of  deputies,  the  scene  on  Thursday  was  most 
extraordinary.  It  was  not  an  inapt  repetition  of  what  occurred 
in  the  constitutional  assembly,  on  the  10th  of  August,  1792,  and 
of  the  decisive  blow  struck  by  Bonaparte  on  the  18th,  when 
with  his  grenadiers  he  turned  the  legislative  body  out  of  doors. 
At  one  o'clock  the  president  took  the  chair,  upwards  of  three 
hundred  members  being  present.  They  gazed  on  each  other 
with  mingled  anxiety,  alarm,  and  exultation.  Half  an  hour 
afterwards,  the  duchess  of  Orleans  entered  with  her  two  sons, 
and  the  dukes  of  Nemours  and  Montpensier.  The  young  count 
de  Paris  came  first,  led  by  one  of  the  deputies.  With  great 
difficulty  way  was  made  for  him  amid  the  crowd  of  officers  and 
soldiers  of  the  national  guard.  His  appearance  at  the  door 
caused  a  strong  sensation,  which  soon  broke  forth  into  murmurs 
and  hostile  exclamations.  Several  of  the  people,  however, 
rushed  into  the  chamber  with  the  young  count,  and  placed  him 
under  the  tribune.  Immediately  after  the  duchess  of  Orleans 
entered  and  seated  herself  in  a  chair,  with  her  two  sons  beside 
her.  By  this  time  the  passages  and  every  vacant  space  was 
filled  with  such  of  the  populace  as  had  succeeded  in  pressing 
themselves  in  along  with  the  national  guard.  The  chamber  was 
agitated  in  every  part.  M.  Dupin  arose,  and  announced  the 
abdication  of  the  king,  and  the  regency  of  the  duchess  of  Or- 
leans. The  scene  that  followed  this  announcement  baffles  de- 
scription. One  voice  was  heard  above  the  others  exclaiming, 
« It  is  too  late."  The  duchess  and  her  children  now  appeared 
amid  a  group  of  deputies,  the  national  guards  hastened  to  sur- 
round the  royal  family.  The  debate  commenced,  one  long  and 
stormy.  During  its  progress  a  crowd  rushed  into  the  chamber, 
composed  of  national  guards  in  arms  and  citizens  carrying 
sabres,  guns,  swords,  and  flags.  So  great  was  the  excitement 
that  many  of  the  deputies  hastily  retired,  together  with  the 
duchess  and  her  sons. 


764  INCIDENTS  OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

Lamartine  and  Ledru  Rollin  ascended  the  tribune,  and  wrote 
out  the  names  of  members  of  a  provisional  government.  The 
deputies  then  retired. 

At  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  another  terrible  scene  occurred.  There 
the  members  of  the  provisional  government  met,  to  decide  what 
course  to  adopt.  The  people  demanded  aloud  that  the  first  act 
of  the  members  should  be  communicated  to  them.  The  majority 
of  the  members  were  opposed  to  an  unmitigated  democracy,  but 
the  people  were  inflexible  in  their  demands.  The  president,  M. 
Dupont  de  l'Eure,  was  compelled  to  give  up  the  attempt  to  be 
heard,  when  he  recommended  the  republic  in  its  less  democratic 
form,  and  he  was  so  exhausted  that  he  twice  fainted.  M.  Marie 
met  with  no  better  success.  Finally,  after  the  most  untiring 
exertions,  the  provisional  government  was  announced  to  consist 
of  Dupont  de  l'Eure,  Lamartine,  Arago,  Marrast,  Ledru  Rollin, 
Gamier  Pages,  Flocon,  and  Louis  Blanc  ;  and  the  democratic  re- 
public was  proclaimed  and  received  with  unparalleled  unanimity. 
Universal  suffrage  was  established ;  the  death  penalty  abolished; 
and  other  popular  measures  adopted.  On  the  day  after  the  bat- 
tle, the  25th  of  February,  order  was  in  a  great  measure  restored 
through  the  exertions  of  Lamartine,  who  addressed  the  people 
five  times  from  the  windows  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and  thus  pre- 
vented an  outbreak.  But  it  was  a  terrible  struggle.  The  more 
violent  of  the  mob  demanded  the  destruction  of  the  provisional 
government.  The  triumph  of  the  oratory  of  Lamartine  was 
complete,  however,  and  calmness  and  order  took  the  place  of 
violence  and  confusion.  Business  revived,  and  the  principal 
personages  who  had  adhered  to  the  late  king  gave  in  their  sub- 
mission to  the  republican  government. 

On  the  following  Sunday,  the  27th  of  February,  a  general 
holiday  and  festivity  was  celebrated.  The  provisional  govern- 
ment reviewed  the  national  guards,  and  in  the  evening  there  was 
a  general  illumination.  The  week  succeeding  the  revolution  was 
occupied  by  the  provisional  government  in  restoring  public  con- 
fidence. Twenty  thousand  of  the  most  indigent  youth  of  Paris 
were  quickly  enrolled,  and  marched  off  to  the  frontier,  and  thus 
was  the  public  peace  secured  from  the  outbreaks  of  an  idle  and 
starving  populace.  On  Saturday,  the  4th  of  March,  the  funeral 
obsequies  of  those  who  fell  among  the  people  during  the  revolu- 
tion were  conducted  with  much  pomp  and  ceremony. 


THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION   OF   1848   AND   '49. 


765 


LEDRU     ROLLIN. 


Peace  being  restored,  it  became  necessary  to  adopt  measures 
for  the  election  of  permanent  officers  of  the  republic.  This  was 
a  gigantic  task.  A  people  were  to  choose  rulers,  who  had  been 
unaccustomed  to  ruling  themselves.  The  mode  of  ballot,  and  the 
qualifications  of  electors  and  candidates  were  to  be  arranged. 
The  23d  of  April  was  named  as  the  day  of  the  election.  A  new 
constitution  was  to  be  drawn  up  by  the  constituent  assembly  of 
the  people.  The  number  of  representatives  was  to  be  nine  hun- 
dred. Suffrage  was  to  be  direct  and  universal,  and  all  citizens 
twenty-five  years  old  were  eligible,  if  possessed  of  civil  rights. 
The  ballot  was  to  be  secret.  Ledru  Rollin  opposed  the  decree 
containing  the  above  provisions,  and  issued  an  incendiary  pro- 
clamation, which  was  disavowed  by  the  other  members  of  the  pro- 
visional government.  He  even  threatened  to  call  the  people  to 
resist  and  overthrow  the  government,  but  was  deterred  for  the 
time  by  the  determination  of  Garnier  Pages,  who  threatened  to 
shoot  him  if  he  did.  It  was  soon  apparent  that  the  working 
classes  were  dissatisfied  with  the  quiet  which  succeeded  the  revo- 
lution. Trees  of  liberty  were  planted  in  various  parts  of  Paris, 
illuminations  and  firing  of  artillery  took  place  at  night,  and  the 
spirit  of  anarchy  was  kept  alive  by  inflammatory  addresses  issued 
by  the  socialist  and  red  republican  leaders,  among  whom  Ledru 
Rollin  was  the  most  conspicuous. 


766 


INCIDENTS  OF,  MODERN   HISTORY. 


L  A  M  A  R  T  I  N  E. 


On  Saturday,  April  16th,  an  attempt  was  made  to  overthrow 
the  moderate  section  of  the  government,  but  the  plot  was  de- 
feated by  the  prompt  and  cordial  manner  in  which  the  national 
guard,  numbering  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  men,  rallied 
to  the  support  of  the  government.  Lamartine  and  his  colleagues 
found  themselves  much  strengthened  by  the  attempt  to  break 
down  their  power,  and  they  were  enabled  to  bring  the  troops  of 
the  line  back  to  Paris,  with  the  approbation  of  the  citizens.  On 
Thursday,  April  20th,  the  great  fete  to  celebrate  the  return  of 
the  troops  of  the  line  took  place.  Three  hundred  thousand 
armed  men,  and  as  many  spectators,  were  mingled  together  for 
seven  or  eight  hours,  with  the  greatest  cordiality.  A  grand 
illumination  took  place  in  the  evening. 

Meanwhile  the  election  for  representatives  to  the  national  as- 
sembly came  off  on  the  day  appointed.  The  moderate  repub- 
licans gained  a  complete  triumph.  Lamartine  was  chosen  by 
nine  cities,  as  their  representative,  and  all  candidates  who  had 
over  two  thousand  votes  were  declared  members  of  the  assembly. 
On  the  4th  of  May,  the  republic  was  officially  proclaimed,  amid 
the  firing  of  artillery  and  the  shouts  of  the  people ;  and,  on  the 
following  day,  the  members  of  the  provisional  government  ten- 
dered their  resignations  from  office,  and  received  the  thanks  of 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1848  AND  '49. 


767 


LOUIS     BLANC. 


the  nation.  •  The  assembly  then  appointed  five  of  their  number 
as  an  executive  committee,  in  the  place  of  the  provisional  go- 
vernment. Their  names  were,  Arago,  Gamier  Pages,  Marie, 
Lamartine,  and  Ledru  Rollin. 

Several  serious  riots  occurred  at  Rouen,  Elboeuf,  and  other 
manufacturing  towns,  which  were  not  suppressed  without  blood- 
shed. They  were  instigated  by  the  socialist  and  communist 
leaders,  who  clung  to  their  theories  with  a  tenacity  undiminished 
by  defeat,  and  watched  the  moment  for  establishing  them  by 
force  of  arms.  The  celebrated  Louis  Blanc  was  one  of  the  most 
active  of  these  men,  and  contributed  as  much  as  any  one  else  to 
bring  about  the  struggle  between  the  workingmen  and  the  mid 
die  classes.  The  first  serious  manifestation  of  the  feeling  of  the 
socialists  and  red  republicans  occurred  on  the  15th  of  May.  A 
large  meeting  was  held  in  the  capital,  to  express  sympathy  for 
the  Polish  patriots  who  had  lately  attempted  a  revolution.  The 
wildest  excitement  prevailed,  and  the  national  assembly  was  de- 
nounced in  the  most  bitter  terms.  About  fifty  vthousand  persons 
followed  a  committee  to  the  national  chamber,  where  they  de- 
manded that  France  should  interfere  in  the  Polish  quarrel.  The 
greatest  uproar  and  excitement  filled  the  chamber,  as  the  crowds 
rushed  in  and  were  cheered  on  by  the  leaders  of  the  clubs.     An 


768  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

attempt  was  made  to  get  up  a  provisional  government  composed 
entirely  of  socialists  and  communists,  and  the  assembly  dispersed 
amid  the  clamour  and  threats  of  the  populace.  The  national 
guard  promptly  rallied  for  the  republic,  and  were  joined  by  the 
"garde  mobile"  and  the  troops  of  the  line.  Lamartine  headed 
them,  and  was  received  with  enthusiasm.  In  a  short  time,  the 
mob  dispersed,  and  their  most  prominent  leaders,  Barbe"s,  Al- 
bert, Blanqui,  Raspail,  and  Sobrier,  were  captured  and  thrown 
into  prison. 

Other  commotions  followed  at  various  periods,  which  served 
to  show  the  state  of  feeling  existing  between  the  red  republi- 
cans and  the  moderates.  Another  party  was  soon  added  to 
these,  occasioned  by  the  election  of  Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
to  a  seat  in  the  national  assembly.  A  paper  was  started  to 
advocate  his  cause,  and  mobs,  shouting  for  an  emperor,  were 
only  dispersed  by  the  soldiers  with  difficulty.  But  the  great 
struggle  was  yet  to  come.  The  workingmen,  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  socialism  and  communism,  had  engaged  in  the  revolu- 
tion of  February  with  the  hope  that  their  favourite  theories 
would  be  put  in  practice,  and  that  they  would  reap  the  greatest 
benefit  from  it.  In  their  view,  the  revolution  was  fruitless, 
since  the  doctrines  of  the  moderate  republicans  had  triumphed. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  middle  classes  were  satisfied  with  the 
results  of  the  revolution,  and  were  determined  to  resist  all  at- 
tempts to  disturb  the  order  of  things.  Both  parties  prepared 
themselves  for  a  desperate  contest. 

The  first  hostile  demonstration  occurred  on  the  22d  of  June. 
A  body  of  workmen  appeared  before  the  palace  of  the  Luxem- 
bourg, and  demanded  to  see  the  executive  committee.  M.  Ma- 
rie consented  to  receive  five  of  their  number,  but  the  interview 
was  fruitless  to  both  parties.  The  workmen  then  gathered 
a  great  crowd,  and  proceeded  through  the  streets,  shouting 
"Down  with  the  executive  committee  !"  Towards  evening,  the 
mob  had  increased  to  such  a  size  that  an  additional  military 
force  was  called  out  and  kept  under  arms  all  night.  The  next 
morning  it  was  found  that  the  rioters  had  erected  barricades  in 
every  quarter  of  the  city,  and  were  preparing  for  a  struggle. 
The  battle  began  at  the  Porte  St.  Dennis,  which  was  barricaded 
very  strongly  and  defended  with  obstinacy.  The  troops  tri- 
umphed, however,  and  the  barricades  were  carried  at  the  point 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION   OF  1848   AND  '49.  769 

of  the  bayonet.  Boys  and  women  took  part  with  the  insur- 
gents, and  several  of  them  were  distinguished  for  their  bravery 
and  the  ardour  with  which  they  fought. 

The  executive  committee  met  at  the,  Luxembourg,  and  ap- 
pointed General  Cavaignac  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  forces 
in  and  around  Paris.  He  was  allowed  to  take  what  steps  he 
deemed  proper  without  interference  from  the  civil  authorities. 
On  Saturday,  the  insurgents  continued  their  operations  with 
persevering  tenacity  of  purpose  at  St.  Marceau,  St.  Antoine, 
St.  Dennis,  and  other  points.  The  assembly  appointed  Gene- 
ral Cavaignac  dictator,  and  declared  Paris  in  a  state  of  siege. 
Before  Saturday  evening,  the  general  had  suppressed  the  insur- 
rection on  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine  and  the  Cite.  But  the 
most  terrible  struggle  was  at  the  Clos  St.  Lazarre.  The  assail- 
ants fought  with  a  desperation  rarely  equalled,  and  at  four 
o'clock  two  hundred  men  of  one  battalion  of  the  "  garde  mo- 
bile" had  fallen.  At  six  o'clock,  the  national  guards  joined 
their  friends  in  a  grand  effort  on  the  Clos  St.  Lazarre.  Before 
this,  a  party,  led  by  General  Cavaignac  in  person,  carried  the 
first  barricade  of  the  Faubourg  St.  Antoine  ;  but  the  •  stronger 
position  could  not  be  reduced.  The  slaughter  at  this  point  was 
terrible. 

The  appearance  of  Paris  at  this  time  was  dreary  in  the  ex- 
treme. At  least  three  hundred  thousand  troops  were  under 
arms  against  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  insurgents. 
One-fourth  of  the  city  had  been  ruined  to  build  barricades,  and 
garrisoned  so  as  to  be  impassable.  General  Cavaignac  sup- 
pressed several  papers  which  were  disseminating  political  dis- 
cord, and  endeavouring  to  inflame  the  passions  of  the  people, 
and  strictly  forbid  all  placards  but  those  issued  by  the  govern- 
ment. On  Sunday,  the  contest  at  the  Pantheon  was  of  the 
most  determined  character.  For  fifteen  hours  the  firing  con- 
tinued incessant,  and  the  slaughter  on  both  sides  was  appalling. 
At  length  military  discipline  triumphed,  and  the  street  was 
cleared.  The  prisoners  taken  by  the  insurgents  were  horribly 
mutilated  by  them  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  work- 
ingmen  were  maddened  by  starvation  and  the  instigation  of  bad 
men  At  this  stage  of  the  rebellion,  the  archbishop  of  Paris 
offered  to  go  among  the  insurgents  and  try  to  restore  order. 
The  offer  was  accepted,  and  the  archbishop  proceeded  to  the 
97  3P 


770 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


ARCHBISHOP    OF    PARIS. 


Place  de  Bastile,  bearing  a  proclamation  of  General  Cavaignac 
that  hostilities  should  cease.  The  firing  ceased  on  both  sides ; 
but,  during  the  cessation,  the  combatants  came  within  reach  of 
each  other  and  got  into  personal  scuffles.  Suddenly  the  firing 
recommenced.  The  prelate,  thus  placed  between  the  two  parties, 
received  a  shot  in  the  groin,  and  was  borne  away  mortally 
wounded.  This  event  caused  regret  on  both  sides — the  insur- 
gents declaring  they  did  not  intend  to  injure  him. 

On  Monday  morning,  the  conflict  was  renewed  with  desperate 
valour  on  both  sides.  But  Generals  Cavaignac  and  Lamoriciere 
captured  the  barricades  one  after  another,  and  before  night  the 
insurgents  were  either  killed,  captured,  or  dispersed,  and  the 
insurrection  was  suppressed.  More  than  twenty  thousand  peo- 
ple had  fallen  in  the  four  days'  contest,  and  the  number  of  pri- 
soners embarrassed  the  government.  Lamartine  and  the  other 
members  of  the  executive  committee  displayed  great  courage 
and  activity  during  the  trying  time,  and  well  deserved  the 
thanks  of  the  nation.  The  remainder  of  the  week  was  em- 
ployed In  burying  the  dead,  repairing  damages  done  to  the  city, 
and  restoring  order.     Troops  continued  to  pour  into  Paris  for 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1848  AND  '49. 


771 


GENERAL    NEGEIEE. 


some  days  subsequent  to  the  suppression  of  the  revolt,  until 
their  number  amounted  to  three  hundred  thousand  men.  Ge- 
neral Cavaignac  resigned  his  absolute  power  to  the  assembly  on 
the  29th  ;  but  such  was  the  gratitude  of  the  people  for  his  ser- 
vices, that  he  was  immediately  created  president  of  state,  with 
authority  to  name  his  officers.  General  Changarnier  was  ap- 
pointed commander-in-chief  of  the  national  guards.  Guards 
were  placed  at  the  end  of  every  street  to  prevent  the  assassina- 
tion of  citizens  by  the  disaffected.  The  energy  of  General 
Cavaignac  was  fully  displayed  in  crushing  every  manifestation 
of  a  renewal  of  the  disturbances,  and  in  his  determination  to 
maintain  law  and  order.  The  14th  of  July  was  appointed  for 
the  holding  of  a  great  banquet,  in  which  two  hundred  thousand 
workmen  were  to  take  part.  Its  occurrence  was  prevented  by 
a  disclosure  that  a  plot  existed  to  assassinate  all  the  members  of 
the  national  assembly  and  the  heads  of  government.  The  great 
number  of  soldiers  on  duty  in  Paris  and  the  vigorous  measures 
of  the  government  dampened  the  courage  of  the  workmen. 

Many  distinguished  men  fell  in  the  four  days'  battle  with  the 
insurgents ;  but  none  was  more  lamented  than  General  Negrier. 
He  fought  bravely  upon  the  side  of  order,  and  was  shot  dead 


772 


INCIDENTS  OP  MODERN   HISTORY. 


while  advancing  towards  a  barricade  at  the  head  of  his  men. 
General  Charbonnel,  a  member  of  assembly,  was  mortally 
wounded  at  his  side.  He  was  interred  with  the  greatest  honours 
paid  to  the  illustrious  dead. 

The  good  results  of  the  revolution  were  not  appreciated  by 
the  great  mass  of  the  French  people,  until  the  constitution  of 
the  republic  had  been  framed  and  adopted  by  the  national  as- 
sembly. Then  a  feeling  of  confidence  and  security  took  the 
place  of  fear  and  excitement,  and  all  kinds  of  business  revived. 
The  constitution  was  proclaimed  on  Sunday,  the  12th  of  No- 
vember, 1848.  The  election  for  president  of  the  republic  took 
place  on  the  10th  of  December.  The  principal  candidates  were 
Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  General  Cavaignac,  and  Ledru  Rol- 
lin.  Nearly  eight  million  votes  were  polled,  of  which  Louis 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  received  six  million.  The  quiet  with 
which  the  election  was  conducted  gave  promise  of  the  entire 
restoration  of  order  and  harmony  to  the  nation.  The  newly 
elected  president,  Bonaparte,  was  formally  proclaimed  as  the 
head  of  the  republic  on  the  20th  of  December.  He  selected 
Odillon  Barrot  to  form  a  ministry,  and  thus,  after  a  year  of  ex- 
traordinary exertion,  was  France  changed  from  a  monarchy, 
with  a  titled  nobility,  to  a  constitutional  republic,  with  the  peo- 
ple placed  upon  an  equality,  which  can  only  be  destroyed  by 
wealth  or  talent. 


INSURRECTIONS    IN   GERMANY. 


i  i  . 


PRINCE    WINDISCHGRATZ. 


THE   INSURRECTIONS  IN  GERMANY. 


HE  news  of  the  February  re- 
volution in  France  threw  all 
ji  Germany  into  commotion.  The 
success  of  the  French  people 
stimulated  the  Germans  to  make 
strenuous  efforts  to  secure  their 
rights.  The  idea  of  a  union 
of  all  the  German  states  into 
one  confederacy  was  long  a 
favourite  one  with  the  people 
of  the  various  states.  They  now  demanded  a  new  civil  and 
criminal  code  for  all  Germany,  ratifying,  among  other  things, 
the  freedom  of  the  press,  trial  by  jury  and  publicity  in  all  judi- 
cial proceedings,  representative  government  in  the  several  states, 
with  the  right  of  voting  taxes  vested  in  the  people  alone,  civil 
equality  without  distinction  of  creed,  and,  lastly,  that  the  peo- 
ple, as  well  as  the  princes,  should  be  represented  in  the  council 

3p2 


774  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN  HISTORY. 

of  the  German  confederation.  These  demands  were  the  old 
creed  of  the  liberal  party  of  Germany,  for  which  they  had  suf- 
fered every  kind  of  persecution.  But  they  were  now  extorted, 
with  more  or  less  violence,  in  the  space  of  three  weeks,  from 
every  sovereign  in  Germany. 

The  first  act  of  submission  was  made  by  the  king  of  Wur- 
temberg,  on  the  3d  of  March,  and  the  example  was  followed  by 
his  brother  sovereigns  in  rapid  succession ;  those  of  Bavaria 
and  Hesse  Darmstadt  abdicated,  after  they  had  complied  with 
the  demands  of  their  subjects.  On  the  13th,  the  old  system 
perished  in  its  metropolis,  Vienna,  after  a  street  tumult  (for  it 
was  not  a  fight)  of  three  or  four  hours;  and  on  the  18th  the 
new  order  of  things  was  established  in  Berlin,  and  consecrated 
by  a  lavish  and  gratuitous  outpouring  of  blood. 

The  king  of  Saxony  refused  to  grant  the  reforms  demanded, 
and  called  out  the  troops ;  but  they  would  not  act  against  the 
people,  and  the  king  was  forced  to  grant  every  thing.  King 
Ernest,  of  Hanover,  also  refused  all  concessions  when  first 
pressed.  He  then  talked  of  abdicating ;  but  the  Hanoverians 
were  unmoved  from  their  purposes  by  this  threat,  and  the  king 
resigned  himself  to  his  fate,  consenting  to  receive  Stiibe  as  one 
of  his  ministers.  This  man  had  spent  many  years  in  prison 
for  resisting  the  tyranny  of  the  king  of  Hanover. 

Serious  riots  had  occurred  in  Bavaria  on  the  19th  of  Feb- 
ruary, occasioned  by  an  insolent  freak  of  Lola  Montez,  the 
king's  mistress.  Lola  was  compelled  to  quit  Munich,  and,  hav- 
ing returned  to  it  on  the  9th  of  March,  she  was  removed  by 
the  police.  The  king  was  compelled  either  to  give  up  his  fas- 
cinating mistress  or  to  abdicate  his  throne  ;  and  the  infatu- 
ated old  monarch  chose  the  latter  alternative.  The  time  for 
a  people  to  bear  with  the  insolent  freaks  of  their  rulers  was 
past. 

The  revolution  in  Vienna  began  on  the  occasion  of  the  open- 
ing of  the  diet  for  Lower  Austria.  The  business  of  the  day 
had  not  proceeded  more  than  half  an  hour,  when  it  was  inter- 
rupted by  a  mass  of  people,  who  forced  their  way  into  the  hall, 
clamouring  for  reform.  Count  Montecuculi,  marshal  of  the 
diet,  immediately  went  to  the  palace,  followed  by  a  crowd  of 
people,  to  present  a  petition  to  the  emperor,  praying  the  same 
reforms  as  had  been  granted  in  other  parts  of  Germany.    The 


INSURRECTIONS  IN   GERMANY.  775 

archduke  Ludwig,  chief  of  the  Home  Department,  informed 
the  count  that  there  was  no  disposition  to  make  concessions.  A 
cabinet  council,  however,  was  summoned,  and  the  marshal  of 
the  diet  and  those  who  accompanied  him  waited  in  vain  for  its 
determination,  from  twelve  to  four  o'clock.  The  people  became 
exasperated  by  this  delay;  the  students  harangued  them ;  the 
tumult  continually  increased.  Suddenly  the  troops  appeared 
and  fired  upon  the  unarmed  multitude,  killing  and  wounding  a 
great  number.  Four  pieces  of  cannon  were  planted  on  St. 
Stephen's  Platz,  and  the  gunners  stood  by  them  with  lighted 
matches.  Meanwhile,  the  alarum  drum  was  beaten ;  the  Burgher 
Guard  appeared  in  arms,  and  were  received  by  the  popu- 
lace with  loud  acclamations  ;  but  all  further  conflict  was  pre- 
vented by  the  announcement  that  Prince  Metternich  had  re- 
signed, that  the  emperor  had  acceded  to  the  popular  demands, 
and  had  confided  the  city  to  the  keeping  of  the  students  and 
the  burghers.  A  new  ministry  was  formed  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Count  Kolowrath,  and  various  measures  of  grace  were 
announced  in  rapid  succession.  An  amnesty  was  declared  in 
favour  of  all  political  prisoners  in  Galicia  and  the  Lombardo- 
Venetian  kingdom.  One  hundred  and  fifty  Polish  and  Italian 
prisoners  were  dismissed  from  the  fortress  of  Spielberg,  infa- 
mous in  the  annals  of  Austrian  despotism.  The  Secret  Court 
of  Police  was  abolished,  and  a  letter  was  published  from  the 
minister,  Baron  Pillersdorf,  to  the  police  officers  of  all  the  Aus- 
trian provinces,  in  which  he  tells  them  that  a  great  many  of  their 
former  functions  are  now  illegal.  They  are  forbidden  to  em- 
ploy spies,  "  since  the  free  press  will  not  fail  to  reveal  danger- 
ous conspiracies  and  plots,  if  any  exist."  Liberty  of  the  per- 
son and  a  kind  of  habeas  corpus  are  officially  proclaimed  in  this 
letter. 

The  constitution  was  proclaimed  on  the  25th  of  April,  and  it 
secured  those  rights  dearest  to  the  mass  of  the  people.  The 
imperial  parliament  consisted  of  two  houses,  of  which  the  lower 
one  was  constituted  on  the  broadest  democratic  basis. 

In  Prussia,  after  the  adjournment  of  the  diet,  the  people  of  the 
Rhenish  provinces  broke  out  in  loud  cries  for  reforms,  and  these 
demands  were  echoed  from  Breslau,  Konigsberg,  and  Berlin.  A 
great  open-air  meeting,  held  on  the  13th  of  March  in  the  capital, 
to  petition  for  reform,  ended  in  a  tumult,  in  which  the  troops  acted 


776  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

with  great  violence.  For  nearly  a  week,  Berlin  was  a  continued 
scene  of  disorder.  On  the  15th,  though  the  people  offered  little 
more  than  passive  resistance,  ten  persons  were  killed  and  up- 
wards of  a  hundred  were  wounded  by  the  military.  While 
such  was  the  state  of  the  capital,  sanguinary  riots  were  taking 
place  also  in  Breslau  and  Kijnigsberg.  On  the  morning  of  the 
18th,  a  deputation  arrived  in  Berlin  from  Cologne,  and  at  once 
waited  on  the  king  and  presented  a  petition  for  reform.  Fre- 
derick William  having  promised  to  accede  to  their  demands, 
they  replied,  "We  have  been  so  often  deceived  and  put  off  that 
we  cannot  wait  any  longer;  we  must  insist  on  a  proclamation 
being  issued  at  once,  or  your  majesty  will  cease  to  reign  over 
the  Rhenish  provinces."  The  king  was  much  hurt ;  but,  after 
some  parley,  submitted. 

He  issued  a  proclamation,  echoing  the  wish  of  the  German 
people  for  a  federal  state,  and  granting  a  constitution  based  on 
liberal  principles.  This  proclamation  was  received  with  every 
demonstration  of  satisfaction  on  the  part  of  the  Prussians. 
Crowds  repaired  to  the  palace,  and  the  king  appeared  at  a 
window  and  was  received  with  tremendous  cheers.  Unluckily 
the  shouts  were  mistaken  by  the  soldiery  for  the  signal  of  at- 
tack. Two  regiments  of  dragoons  endeavoured  to  force  the 
people  back,  and  some  shots  were  accidentally  fired.  The 
effect  was  disastrous.  Conceiving  the  existence  of  a  design  to 
massacre  them,  the  masses  rushed  to  arms  at  once.  Barricades 
were  erected,  and  riflemen  posted  on  every  house-top  and  in 
every  window.  The  soldiery  had  always  hated  the  bourgeoise, 
and  were  nothing  loath  to  engage  with  them  in  a  conflict.  For 
fifteen  hours,  the  people  fought  with  valour  and  determination, 
and  the  soldiers  with  a  fury  only  increased  by  resistance.  -No 
quarter  was  given  on  either  side. 

At  five  on  the  morning  of  the  19th  of  March,  the  king 
voluntarily  desisted  from  the  contest,  without  being  actually 
defeated.  At  seven  o'clock,  a  proclamation  was  issued,  addressed 
to  the  citizens  of  Berlin,  assuring  them  that  the  conflict  was 
the  result  of  an  accident  and  a  mistake,  and  entreating  mutual 
forbearance  on  both  sides.  Crowds  again  thronged  to  the 
palace  of  the  king,  and  he  appeared  and  confided  himself  to 
their  protection.  The  people  received  him  cordially.  An  am- 
nesty was  announced.     The  military  were  sent  out  of  the  town, 


INSURRECTIONS   IN   GERMANY.  777 

a  liberal  ministry  formed,  and  a  burgher  guard  created,  in 
■which  the  students  of  the  universities  were  incorporated.  The 
people  of  Berlin  were  satisfied.  The  number  of  those  who  fell 
in  the  conflict  on  the  popular  side  was  about  two  hundred,  of 
whom  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  received  a  public  funeral. 
On  the  part  of  the  military,  the  loss  was  three  commissioned 
officers  and  seventeen  non-commissioned  officers  and  privates 
killed,  and  fourteen  commissioned  officers,  fourteen  non-com- 
missioned, two  hundred  and  twenty-five  rank  and  file,  and  one 
surgeon  wounded. 

Frederick  William  had  now  virtually  lost  a  battle  against  his 
own  subjects.  He  hoped  to  raise  his  fallen  dignity,  however, 
by  a  bold  stroke.  On  the  21st  of  March,  he  issued  a  procla- 
mation, declaring  in  clear  and  forcible  terms  that  he  would 
head  the  grand  movement  for  the  regeneration  of  Germany. 
On  the  same  day,  the  king,  wearing  the  once-proscribed  tri- 
colour, rode  through  the  streets  of  Berlin,  and  was  received 
with  enthusiasm. 

A  sudden  feeling  in  favour  of  Poland  broke  out  in  Germany 
in  the  first  days  of  the  revolutionary  fervour.  On  the  20th  of 
March,  the  doors  of  the  prison  of  Berlin  were  thrown  open, 
and  the  condemned  Poles  came  forth  amid  the  shouts  of  the 
populace.  Mierolawski  and  his  companions  were  seated  in  a 
carriage,  and  the  people  drew  them  to  the  palace  and  the  uni- 
versity. The  patriots  bore  the  black,  red,  and  golden  banner 
of  the  German  republicans.  A  Polish  deputation  from  Posen 
arrived  in  Berlin  on  the  following  day,  and  obtained  a  division 
of  that  duchy,  so  as  to  give  the  exiled  Poles  a  home.  Eight 
days  after  the  Poles  were  liberated  from  the  prison  of  Berlin  a 
civil  war  broke  out  in  Posen,  between  the  people  of  that  nation 
and  the  Germans.  Both  sides  displayed  the  most  savage  cru- 
elty, and  the  details  are  too  horrid  to  relate.  At  last  the  line 
of  demarcation  between  Polish  and  German  Posen  was  settled, 
and  the  insurrection  terminated  on  the  10th  of  May,  by  the 
capture  of  Mierolawski  and  the  defeat  of  his  band,  the  last 
remnant  of  a  Polish  army  of  thirty  thousand  men. 

On  the  31st  of  March,  five  hundred  deputies  from  all  parts 
of  Germany  held  their  first  sitting  at  Frankfort,  as  the  prelimi- 
nary convention  for  the  formation  of  a  national  parliament. 
It  was  resolved  that  a  national  assembly  should  be  elected  by 
98 


778  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

universal  suffrage,  and  that  any  German  should  be  eligible 
thereto  for  any  part  of  Germany.  Having  made  a  few  other 
arrangements,  the  convention  adjourned,  but  left  behind  it  a 
permanent  committee  of  fifty,  who,  with  seventeen  »  men  of 
confidence,"  constituted  from  the  beginning  of  April  till  the 
middle  of  May,  the  supreme  council  that  governed  Germany. 
A  constitution  for  the  collective  German  states  was  drawn  up,  and 
military  operations  directed  against  the  armed  republicans  of  Ba- 
den. The  republicans  were  commanded  by  Hecker  and  Struve. 
The  force  of  the  confederation  met  them  on  the  20th  of  April, 
and,  after  General  von  Gageon  had  been  treacherously  murdered 
in  a  parley,  totally  routed  them.  Hecker  escaped  ;  Struve  was 
taken  prisoner,  but  soon  after  rescued.  Friburg  was  stormed 
on  the  24th,  and  Constanz  was  occupied  on  the  same  day.  Her- 
wegh,  the  poet  and  communist,  arrived  with  his  free  corps  from 
France  too  late  to  prevent  the  catastrophe.  His  own  men 
(nine  hundred)  were  totally  routed  on  the  27th  by  a  single  com- 
pany of  Wurtemburg  troops,  with  a  loss  of  twenty-three  killed 
and  two  hundred  taken  prisoners.  Herwegh,  with  his  wife, 
who  was  armed  and  in  the  fight,  escaped  to  Switzerland. 

The  German  parliament  held  its  first  sitting  at  Frankfort  on 
the  18th  of  May,  and  on  the  28th  of  June  the  parliament  cre- 
ated the  provisional  central  power  for  the  administration  of  all 
affairs  which  affect  the  whole  German  nation.  Archduke  John 
of  Austria  was  elected  regent  by  a  large  majority.  He  was 
solemnly  installed  in  office  on  the  12th  of  July. 

For  two  months  after  the  revolution  in  March,  Vienna  re- 
mained in  a  state  of  uninterrupted  quiet.  But  the  corruption 
of  the  emperor's  advisers  and  the  harangues  and  writings  of 
republican  leaders,  kept  the  spirit  of  revolt  alive  in  the  minds 
of  the  people ;  and  on  the  15th  of  May  the  public  feeling  dis- 
played itself  in  a  fresh  revolutionary  movement.  The  students 
of  the  university  took  the  lead.  They  demanded  of  the  minis- 
try that  the  military  should  be  withdrawn  from  the  city,  that 
the  central  committee  of  the  national  guard  should  be  main- 
tained, and  that  the  election  law  should  be  declared  null  and 
void.  The  ministers  withstood  these  demands  a  whole  day; 
but,  finding  themselves  without  force  sufficient  to  resist  the 
armed  petitioners,  who  were  joined  by  the  national  guard,  they 
yielded,  and  at  midnight  the  minister  of  the  interior  issued  a 


INSURRECTIONS   IN   GERMANY.  779 

proclamation  conceding  all  that  was  required.  This  was  a  vir- 
tual ratification  of  a  new  revolution,  the  constitution  of  April 
25th  being  superseded,  and  it  was  settled  that  the  diet  should 
consist  of  but  one  chamber- 
On  the  16th  of  May,  the  emperor  and  his  family  absconded 
from  the  capital  and  fled  to  Innspruck,  in  the  Tyrol.  This 
event  threw  the  ministers  and  the  whole  population  of  Vienna 
into  a  ferment,  and  messengers  were  despatched  to  entreat  the 
fugitives  to  return,  but  they  were  obstinate.  The  aristocratic 
party  had  counselled  the  flight  of  the  emperor,  and  they  strove 
to  make  the  event  serve  their  reactionary  projects.  They 
spread  stories  of  the  ill  treatment  of  the  emperor  by  the  Vi- 
ennese through  all  the  provinces,  with  the  object  of  exciting  a 
feeling  of  sympathy  for  him  and  a  detestation  of  the  liberals. 
A  final  stroke  was  then  resolved  upon  to  complete  the  work. 

On  the  25th  of  May,  a  rumour  reached  the  Viennese  that 
three  regiments  of  the  military  were  to  enter  the  city  by  night, 
and  universal  alarm  was  created.  The  next  day  the  academi- 
cal legion  received  orders  to  disband  within  twenty-four  hours. 
They  refused  to  lay  down  their  arms,  and  the  gates  of  the 
town  were  shut  and  guarded  by  soldiers.  But  the  workmen 
from  the  suburbs  stormed  them,  and  one  of  the  assailants,  a 
wox-kman,  was  killed  in  the  conflict.  A  general  insurrection 
was  begun,  and  barricades  arose  in  every  street.  This  state 
of  things  lasted  until  night,  and  ended  in  a  complete  victory 
of  the  people,  whose  conditions  were  again  ratified  by  the  mi- 
nisters on  the  15th.  Things  then  assumed  a  comparatively 
quiet  state.  The  barricades  were  removed,  and  business  re- 
sumed. The  emperor  still  remained  at  Innspruck ;  but  he 
appointed  his  uncle,  the  archduke  John,  to  represent  him  in 
the  capital  and  open  the  assembly  in  his  name.  This  was  ac- 
cordingly done  on  the  22d  of  July,  in  an  amicable  speech,  by  the 
archduke.  The  emperor  was  at  last  prevailed  upon  to  return 
to  Vienna,  where  he  arrived  on  the  12th  of  August,  and  thus 
ended  the  second  phase  in  the  Viennese  insurrection. 

Two  days  before  the  rising  in  Vienna,  a  meeting  was  held  in 
Prague,  which  adopted  an  address  to  the  government,  in  which 
the  equality  of  the  Tchechs  and  Germans  was  required  to  be 
recognised  by  law,  and  representative  and  municipal  reform, 
security  for  personal  liberty,  equality  of  all  religious  denomina- 


780  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

tions,  and  other  liberal  measures,  demanded  by  both  the  Tchechs 
and  Germans,  who  forgot  their  national  hatred  for  the  time. 
A  deputation  carried  the  address  to  the  government,  which,  at 
first,  met  it  with  evasive  and  dilatory  compromises,  but  eventu- 
ally granted  all  they  desired.  Bohemia  was  formed  into  a  se- 
parate state,  under  the  vice-royalty  of  Francis  Joseph,  the  heir- 
presumptive  to  the  empire.  But  the  Tcshecks  soon  perceived 
that  they  reaped  all  the  advantages  of  the  reforms,  and  they 
set  about  striving  to  unite  the  whole  Sclavonic  nation  into  one 
empire.  They  neglected  to  send  a  representative  to  the  Ger- 
man national  assembly,  and  circulated  a  proclamation  inviting 
representatives  of  the  Sclavonic  race  from  all  the  Austrian 
provinces,  and  even  foreign  states,  to  assemble  at  Prague  on 
the  31st  of  May,  to  concert  measures  for  protecting  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Sclavonic  people  from  the  encroachments  of 
the  Germans. 

The  congress  opened  on  the  2d  of  June,  and  was  abruptly 
closed  on  the  12th.  '  The  representatives  were  cordially  unani- 
mous in  support  of  the  measures  proposed.  A  manifesto  was 
issued  to  the  nations  of  Christendom,  declaring  that  they  were 
about  to  form  a  central  federation  in  Austria.  The  Viennese 
ministry  declared  the  provisional  government  of  Bohemia,  which 
was  created  by  the  Sclavonians,  to  be  an  illegal  body,  and  its 
acts  were  therefore  null  and  void.  This  challenge  was  answered, 
as  it  was  intended  it  should  be,  by  a  general  insurrection,  which 
raged  for  five  days.  Nor  was  it  subdued,  until  Prince  Windisch- 
gratz,  the  Austrian  commander,  had  bombarded  Prague,  and 
laid  much  of  it  in  ruins.  Prague  relapsed  into  its  former 
dependence  on  Vienna ;  the  Sclavonic  congress  was  dispersed, 
and  the  holding  of  the  Bohemian  parliament  postponed.  The 
most  horrid  cruelties  were  practised  by  the  insurgent  Tchechs 
upon  the  soldiers  they  took  alive.  Almost  the  first  shot  fired 
in  the  insurrection  killed  the  princess  Windischgratz  in  her  own 
apartment.  The  prince  himself  was  seized  and  dragged  to  a 
lamp-post  to  be  hung,  but  was  rescued  by  his  grenadiers.  Five 
minutes  afterwards,  his  artillery  swept  the  streets  of  Prague. 

War  broke  out  in  the  latter  part  of  August  between  the  Hun- 
garians and  the  Croats.  Jellachich,  the  ban  of  Croatia,  was 
attached  to  the  government  of  Vienna,  and  the  Magyars  were 
forced  to  depend  altogether  upon  their  own  exertions  for  success. 


INSURRECTIONS   IN   GERMANY.  781 

The  diet  sent  a  deputation  to  Vienna  before  the  war  broke  out, 
but  the  Viennese  assembly  would  not  receive  them,  and  the 
diet,  deeply  offended  by  the  insult,  conferred  dictatorial  powers 
upon  Kossuth. 

Jellachich,  at  the  head  of  the  Croat  army,  crossed  the  Drave, 
and,  traversing  all  southern  Hungary  without  meeting  an  enemy, 
he  arrived  at  Stuhlweissenburg,  within  a  day's  march  of  Pesth, 
the  capital  of  Hungary.  He  issued  a  proclamation  on  crossing 
the  frontier,  in  which  he  said  he  invaded  Hungary  on  his  sole  au- 
thority, and  for  the  purpose  of  upholding  a  constitutional  mon- 
archy in  opposition  to  the  diet.  Encouraged  by  the  movement  of 
Jellachich,  the  emperor  of  Austria  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  the 
distractions  in  Hungary,  as  he  called  them.  He  appointed  Count 
Lamberg  to  command  all  the  forces  in  the  kingdom.  The  diet 
resolved  that  the  count's  commission  was  illegal,  and  when  he 
arrived  at  Pesth,  in  the  latter  part  of  September,  he  was  attacked 
by  a  mob,  killed,  and  his  body  dragged  through  the  streets.  It 
was  soon  discovered  that  the  imperial  government  assisted 
Jellachich  by  secret  subsidies,  and  the  Magyars  resolved  to 
devote  their  strength  to  the  resistance  of  his  authority.  At 
Pesth,  every  man  took  up  arms,  and  even  ladies  worked  in  the 
trenches. 

While  Jellachich  was  waiting  for  artillery  to  lay  siege  to  Pesth, 
he  was  attacked  by  an  irregular  force  led  by  Mezzaros,  the 
Hungarian  minister  of  war,  and  a  portion  of  his  cavalry  suf- 
fered severely.  The  ban  then  withdrew  westward  to  Raab  and 
Comorn,  where  he  could  command  the  Danube  and  the  Vienna 
road  to  Buda.  This  movement  was  thought  by  the  people  of 
Vienna  to  be  intended  to  back  the  reactionary  movement  of  the 
government,  and  they  murmured  loudly  against  all  measures 
adverse  to  Hungary. 

In  October,  a  regiment  of  German  grenadiers,  favourable  to 
the  cause  of  the  people,  was  ordered  to  join  the  expedition 
against  the  Hungarians.  They  immediately  concerted  with  the 
national  guard  and  the  academical  legion,  and  it  was  resolved 
to  prevent  their  departure.  The  confederates  broke  up  the  rail- 
way to  some  distance  from  the  station,  in  the  night,  and  erected 
a  barricade  where  the  soldiers  would  have  to  pass.  In  the 
morning,  the  grenadiers  were  ordered  to  storm  the  barricades, 
but,  being  joined  by  their  friends,  they  attacked  and  routed  the 

3Q 


782  INCIDENTS   OF    MODERN   HISTORY. 

government  troops,  and  marched  into  the  town.  The  insur- 
rection became  general,  and  the  imperial  forces  were  everywhere 
defeated.  Count  Latour,  the  minister  of  war,  was  butchered 
in  the  most  horrible  manner.  On  the  7th  of  October,  every- 
thing was  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  they  might  have  cho- 
sen their  own  form  of  government.  The  emperor  Ferdinand 
left  Vienna  on  the  7th,  leaving  behind  him  an  address  to  the 
diet,  which  promised  to  aid  in  crushing  the  insurgent  populace, 
as  soon  as  a  force  could  be  collected.  The  emperor  took  refuge 
with  the  Sclavonians,  and  then  declared  open  war  against  the 
German  and  Magyar  rebels.  Prince  Windischgratz  was  ap- 
pointed commander  of  all  the  forces  of  the  empire,  except  the 
army  in  Italy. 

Vienna  was  soon  invested  by  Windischgratz,  with  one  hundred 
thousand  men,  and  one  hundred  and  forty  guns.  Messen- 
hauser  and  General  Bern  commanded  the  forces  in  the  city. 
The  attack  began  on  the  28th  of  October,  and,  by  the  next  day, 
the  city  was  so  far  reduced  that  a  suspension  of  hostilities  was 
agreed  upon  while  the  besieged  could  deliberate  upon  a  sur- 
render. The  greater  portion  of  the  forces  and  the  city  authori- 
ties agreed  upon  a  surrender,  and  a  disarming  had  begun  on 
the  30th,  when  news  that  the  Hungarian  forces  were  advancing 
from  Vrucks  broke  off  all  thoughts  of  surrender,  and  the  battle 
was  renewed  *vith  vigour  on  both  sides.  The  slaughter  was 
dreadful.  The  whole  city  was  not  subdued  until  the  2d  of  No- 
vember, when  twenty-five  hundred  people  had  fallen  on  both  sides, 
and  a  great  quantity  of  property  been  destroyed.  The  Hun- 
garians were  driven  off  by  Jellachich.  No  quarter  was  given  by 
the  savage  imperialists,  and  the  city  was  pillaged.  For  a  week 
after  the  capture,  "Windischgratz  sanctioned  the  commission  of 
the  worst  crimes,  and  the  court-martials  were  busy  condemning 
prisoners  to  be  hung,  shot,  or  otherwise  punished,  with  secrecy, 
as  if  conscious  of  committing  murder,  and  not  satisfying  justice. 
Among  their  victims  was  Messenhauser,  commander  of  the 
national  guard,  and  Robert  Blum,  a  member  of  the  Frankfort 
assembly. 

The  imperial  authority  was  now  triumphant  in  Austria,  but 
the  lesson  which  the  emperor  had  learned  led  him  to  adopt 
milder  measures  and  more  liberal  policy  than  before  the  in- 
surrection.    All  veneration  for  the  person  of  Ferdinand,  how- 


INSURRECTIONS  IN  GERMANY.  783 

ever,  was  at  an  end  among  the  people,  and  it  was  deemed  ne- 
cessary by  the  ministry,  that  some  measure  should  be  taken  to 
restore  public  confidence  in  the  government.  By  their  advice, 
Ferdinand  abdicated  the  throne  of  Austria,  on  the  2d  of  De- 
cember, and  was  succeeded  by  the  son  of  the  archduke  Francis 
Charles,  a  young  man  only  nineteen  years  old,  who  was  pro- 
claimed under  the  title  of  Francis  Joseph  I.  The  accession  of 
the  new  emperor  brought  j^eace  to  all  the  Austrian  states,  except 
Hungary.  The  diet  of  that  country  denounced  the  emperor  as 
an  usurper,  and  both  sides  prepared  for  war. 

The  imperial  generals  collected  all  their  forces,  and  enclosed 
Hungary  in  a  ring  of  bayonets  and  cannon.  The  main  army 
of  invasion  was  led  by  Windischgratz,  and  there  were  others, 
under  Schlich,  Dahler,  Puchner,  Urban,  and  Wardener.  On  the 
part  of  the  Hungarians,  the  most  extraordinary  exertions  were 
made,  stimulated  by  the  eloquence  of  Louis  Kossuth,  the  dic- 
tator, and  the  appeals  of  the  diet.  Having  collected  an  army 
of  fifty  thousand  infantry,  with  fifty-four  cannon,  and  twelve 
hundred  hussars,  the  Hungarians  marched  to  the  plains  of  Vi- 
enna, where  a  battle  took  place  with  an  army  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  Austrians,  under  Windischgratz.  The  Hun- 
garians fought  bravely,  but  were  overpowered  by  numbers,  and 
compelled  to  retire,  leaving  six  thousand  men  dead  upon  the 
field.  Defeat  did  not  dishearten  them ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
the  enlistment  and  equipment  of  troops  proceeded  with  wonder- 
ful rapidity.  Even  women  joined  the  army,  and  fought  in  the 
subsequent  battles.  At  the  close  of  1848,  more  than  one  hun- 
dred thousand  Hungarians  were  in  the  field.  But  their  forces 
were  divided,  while  a  solid  army  of  one  hundred  thousand  Aus- 
trians and  Croats  were  advancing  to  their  capital.  Barricades 
were  erected  on  the  road  to  Pesth,  but  they  were  avoided  by  a 
roundabout  march  by  the  imperialists,  and  the  Hungarians  were 
compelled  to  leave  their  capital,  after  placing  a  garrison  in  the 
almost  impregnable  fortress  of  Comorn.  A  Hungarian  army  of 
sixty  thousand  men,  under  the  young  General  Georgey,  held  the 
plains  between  the  Danube  and  the  Thiers.  General  Bern  de- 
fended the  rear,  with  fifteen  thousand  men. 

We  cannot  follow  the  two  armies  in  all  their  various  move- 
ments. At  first,  the  Hungarians  were  everywhere  driven  back, 
and  their  cause  was  regarded  as  hopeless.     But  they  roused 


784  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

themselves  to  still  greater  exertions,  and  began  to  act  on  the 
offensive.  By  skilful  manoeuvring,  Bern  regained  Transylvania, 
driving  out  the  Russians  who  were  advancing  in  that  direction. 
A  two  days'  battle  was  fought  near  Exlan,  and  the  Austrians 
claimed  the  victory,  but  they  were  without  benefit  from  it.  In 
the  mean  time,  the  valiant  Georgey  defeated  the  enemy  opposed 
to  him,  in  several  brilliant  engagements. 

The  Austrians  now  fell  back  in  allt  directions,  and  were  glad 
to  escape  from  the  Hungarian  territory.  Windischgratz  was 
succeeded  by  "Welden,  said  to  be  the  best  Austrian  general.  A 
great  battle  was  fought  on  the  twentieth  and  twenty-first  of 
April,  near  Ofer,  in  which  the  Austrians  were  totally  defeated, 
with  the  loss  of  twenty  guns  and  two  thousand  prisoners.  On 
the  24th,  Dembinski,  at  the  head  of  fifteen  thousand  Magyars 
and  Poles,  took  possession  of  Pesth,  amid  the  most  extravagant 
demonstrations  of  joy  on  the  part  of  the  populace.  The  Aus- 
trians then  raised  the  siege  of  Comorn. 

The  triumphant  Magyars  now  made  known  the  terms  on  which 
they  would  cease  hostilities ; .  but  the  imperial  government  re- 
fused to  accede  to  them,  and  finding  the  whole  strength  of  the 
empire  unable  to  cope  with  the  heroic  defenders  of  their  country, 
the  assistance  of  the  giant  power  of  Russia  was  solicited  and 
obtained.  Unterrified  by  this  array  of  power,  the  Hungarians 
nerved  themselves  for  a  last  and  glorious  effort.  Kossuth  was 
chosen  governor  of  Hungary,  and  the  diet  proclaimed  their  in- 
tention to  establish  a  republic.  On  the  14th  of  May,  Kossuth 
took  the  oath  of  office.  According  to  the  report  of  the  minister 
of  Avar,  the  Hungarian  army  consisted  of  three  hundred  and 
ninety-six  thousand  armed  troops,  commanded  by  Bern,  Georgey, 
Dembinski,  Perezel,  Guyon,  Klapka,  Dannenburg,  Gaspar, 
Vetter,  and  Aulich.  There  were  sixty  thousand  cavalry,  and 
more  than  four  hundred  pieces  of  artillery.  The  Austrians 
again  made  preparations  for  invasion.  Welden  was  removed, 
and  Baron  Haynau  appointed  commander-in-chief.  At  the  head 
of  a  large  army,  he  marched  down  the  Danube,  captured  several 
towns,  and  committed  acts  of  the  most  atrocious  cruelty.  Jel- 
lachich,  with  an  army  of  Croats,  advanced  from  the  south-west, 
and  Prince  Paskiewitch,  at  the  head  of  the  Russians,  advanced 
from  the  north-east. 

In  the  brief  campaign  which  followed,  the  Magyars  defeated 


INSURRECTIONS   IN   GERMANY. 


785 


the  Croats  under  Jellachich,  and,  after  a  series  of  combats 
lasting  four  days,  Bern  compelled  the  imperialists  to  raise  the 
siege  of  Peterwardein.  The  information  of  the  defeat  of  Jel- 
lachich and  the  Croats  was  conveyed  to  Kossuth  by  Bern,  in 
the  words,  Bern,  Bam,  Boom !  The  object  of  Kossuth  was  to 
unite  the  Hungarians,  and  fall  upon  each  of  the  invading 
armies,  and  beat  them  before  they  could  unite.  But  the  plans 
of  the  governor  were  defeated  by  the  obstinacy  or  treachery  of 
Georgey.  In  his  headstrong  rashness,  he  was  entangled  be- 
tween the  armies  of  Haynau  and  Paskiewitch,  and  from  this 
time  the  Hungarian  cause  began  to  droop.  The  diet  threw  its 
power  into  the  hands  of  Georgey,  who  was  proclaimed  dictator. 
After  a  consultation  at  Arad,  with  Kossuth,  Bern,  and  other 
leaders,  he  protested  that  the  struggle  was  a  hopeless  one,  and 
resolved  to  bring  it  to  an  end.  The  result  was  an  unconditional 
surrender  of  his  whole  army  into  the  hands  of  the  Russians, 
and  Hungary  was  betrayed. 

99  3q2 


786 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


COUNT    BATH  TAN  I. 


Before  this  treacherous  surrender,  the  garrison  of  Comorn 
sallied  out,  and  captured  the  city  and  citadel  of  Raab,  obtaining 
a  complete  triumph  over  the  Austrians.  But  everywhere  else, 
the  Magyars  were  defeated  by  the  Russians  and  Austrians. 
Bern  and  Guyon  were  surrounded  by  the  Russians,  but  succeeded 
in  making  their  escape.  Dembinski  was  defeated  in  the  north, 
and  about  sixteen  thousand  men  surrendered  to  the  Russians. 
The  garrison  of  Comorn,  under  General  Klapka,  still  held  out, 
and  was  furnished  to  stand  a  long  siege.  They  refused  to  sur- 
render, except  on  the  most  favourable  terms.  Haynau  and  Ra- 
detski  were  opposed  to  each  other  on  the  question  of  granting 
terms.  The  ferocious  Haynau  wanted  to  storm,  slay,  and  hang 
all  that  could  be  taken,  but  Radetski  was  humane  as  well  as 
brave,  and  he  opposed  it.  Humanity  triumphed  in  this  instance, 
and  the  garrison  surrendered  on  good  terms.     Thus  was  the 


INSURRECTIONS   IN   GERMANY. 


787 


revolution  in  Hungary  completely  subdued ;  partly  by  the  over- 
whelming numbers  of  the  united  Austrian  and  Russian  forces, 
but  principally  by  headstrong  insubordination,  or,  as  seems 
apparent  from  the  unconditional  surrender  of  Georgey,  foul 
treachery. 

With  every  thing  at  their  mercy,  the  Austrians,  at  the  insti- 
gation of  the  savage  Haynau,  acted  with  all  the  barbarity  and 
cruelty  that  was  only  to  be  expected  from  an  uncivilized  nation. 
Combatants  and  non-combatants,  priests,  women,  and  children, 
fell  victims  to  the  insatiable  thirst  for  vengeance,  and  were 
either  put  to  death,  thrown  into  prison,  or  scourged  by  the  con- 
querors. Among  the  victims  whose  death  excited  much  sym- 
pathy throughout  the  civilized  nations,  was  the  count  Bathyani, 
Kossuth's  minister  of  war.  His  execution  was  a  murder  with- 
out a  shadow  of  justification,  and  it  was  conducted  with  all  the 
barbarity  which  was  possible,  under  the  circumstances.  The 
conduct  of  the  Austrians  excited  universal  detestation  for  that 
government  throughout  Christendom.  Kossuth,  Bern,  Dem- 
binski,  and  other  leaders  of  the  patriots,  took  refuge  in  Turkey, 
when  they  found  that  all  was  lost.  The  Sultan  of  Turkey  pro- 
tected them,  and  resisted,  firmly,  the  demands  for  their  surrender 
made  by  Russia  and  Austria. 


788 


INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 


GARIBALDI. 


INSURRECTIONS  IN  ITALY. 


N  Italy,  the  year  1848  was  from  the  outset 
marked  with  important  events.  First  on  the 
list  is  the  massacre  of  Milan,  to  which  we 
shall  presently  revert.  On  the  12th  of  Janu- 
ary, the  fete-day  of  King  Ferdinand  of  Na- 
ples, the  people  of  Palermo  and  all  the  great 
towns  of  Sicily  rose  simultaneously  and  drove 
out  the  Neapolitan  troops.  On  the  28th,  the 
Neapolitans  received  a  constitution  modelled  on  the  French 
charter  of  1830,  but  in  some  respects  more  liberal.  The  Si- 
cilians were  offered  their  share  of  this  constitution,  but  they  re- 
fused to  accept  it.  They  defeated  all  the  royal  troops  sent 
against  them  ;  elected  their  own  parliament,  which  was  opened 
at  Palermo,  on  the  25th  of  March,  by  Ruggiero  Settimo,  presi- 
dent of  the  provisional  government ;  and  on  the  13th  of  the 
following  month,  the  deposition  of  King  Ferdinand  and  the  in- 
dependence of  Sicily  were  formally  decreed. 
In  Tuscany,  a  series  of  liberal  measures  was  crowned  on  the 


INSURRECTIONS   IN   ITALY.  789 

1st  of  February  by  the  issue  of  a  constitution  better  than  any 
of  the  others  granted  by  the  four  native  princes  of  Italy  to 
their  subjects,  and  in  one  capital  item  superior  to  that  framed 
for  themselves  by  the  Sicilians. 

The  Sardinians  next  obtained  a  constitution,  -which  was  pub- 
lished on  the  5th  of  March,  and  Count  Cesare  Balbo,  a  well- 
known  writer  and  statesman,  was  appointed  to  form  a  cabinet. 
Piedmont  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia,  but 
the  constitution  of  that  country  gave  more  power  to  the  execu- 
tive than  any  of  the  others.  In  Rome,  the  constitution  granted 
by  the  pope  was  proclaimed  on  the  15th  of  March,  and  on  the 
same  day  the  Jesuits  were  ordered  to  withdraw  from  the  papal 
dominions.  The  new  constitution,  however,  was  far  from  being 
satisfactory  to  the  people.  The  most  objectional  feature  of  it 
was  the  union  of  the  civil  and  religious  regulations.  The  diffi- 
culty of  harmonizing  the  views  of  the  pope  with  those  of  the 
people  was  frankly  stated  by  the  pope  in  the  proclamation  in- 
corporating the  constitution. 

In  the  Lombardo-Venetian  kingdom,  resistance  to  the  Austrian 
authorities  began  in  the  early  part  of  January,  1848.  Though 
unable  to  cope  in  arms  with  the  Austrians,  every  occasion  by 
which  they  could  be  annoyed  was  eagerly  seized  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  kingdom.  On  the  3d  of  January,  the  Austrian 
soldiers  were  inflamed  to  such  a  pitch  against  the  people,  that 
they  attacked  and  killed  or  wounded  ninety-one  persons.  Five 
days  after  the  massacre  at  Milan,  another  outrage  occurred  at 
Pavia.  The  soldiers  attacked  a  funeral  procession  of  the  stu- 
dents, but  there  they  suffered  severely  themselves.  Other  out- 
rages followed,  and  a  deep,  intense  hatred  of  the  Austrians 
was  roused  in  the  breasts  of  the  oppressed.  Martial  law  was 
proclaimed,  and  the  people  of  that  beautiful  country  were  ground 
by  an  unmerciful  military  despotism.  When  the  news  of  the 
revolution  in  Vienna  reached  Milan,  the  people  flocked  to  the 
government  house,  and  demanded  the  release  of  all  political  pri- 
soners, and  the  formation  of  a  national  guard.  The  soldiers 
fired  at  the  crowd ;  a  boy  of  sixteen  drew  out  a  pistol  and  fired 
at  the  soldiers,  exclaiming  "  Viva  V Italia  !"  The  shot  and 
cry  roused  the  people ;  they  rushed  forward,  overpowered  the 
guard,  made  the  vice-governor  prisoner,  and  planted  the  tri- 
coloured  banner  on  the  palace.     Some  Croats  afterwards  fired  on 


790  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

the  people,  and  killed  five  or  six  of  them.  A  general  rising 
took  place  at  once.  Radetski  withdrew  his  men  to  their  re- 
spective barracks,  undecided  how  to  act.  By  the  time  he  had 
decided,  the  city  was  barricaded.  The  Austrians  numbered 
twelve  thousand  men,  yet  they  acted  on  the  defensive.  The 
conflict  raged  day  and  night,  until  the  evening  of  the  23d  of 
March,  when  the  Austrians  were  compelled  to  retire  towards 
Vienna.  The  Milanese  displayed  the  greatest  bravery  through- 
out the  contest,  and  defeated  twelve  thousand  Austrians,  with 
cavalry  and  artillery,  when  they  had  not  over  five  hundred  guns 
and  pistols.  Their  loss  was  about  one  hundred  killed,  and  two 
hundred  and  fifty  wounded. 

The  other  cities  of  Lombardy  followed  the  example  of  Milan, 
and  Venice  declared  itself  a  republic.  Mantua  and  Verona 
alone  sheltered  the  Austrians.  On  the  27th,  the  vanguard  of 
the  Piedmontese  army,  under  Charles  Albert,  arrived  before  Mi- 
lan. But  he  refused  to  enter  the  city,  until  he  had  defeated  the 
Austrians,  which  was  not  destined  to  be  achieved  by  him. 

The  weakness  of  the  administration  of  the  provisional  go- 
vernment of  Lombardy  was  the  principal  cause  of  its  short 
existence.  Able  men  were  displaced  by  the  intrigues  of  weak 
ones,  and  the  greatest  confusion  prevailed  in  all  departments  of 
the  government.  Parma,  Modena,  Tuscany,  Rome,  and  Naples 
sent  large  contingents  to  the  army  under  Charles  Albert.  But 
he  neglected  to  prevent  the  concentration  of  the  Austrian  forces, 
although  he  forced  their  lines  at  several  points.  On  the  18th 
of  May,  Charles  Albert  laid  siege  to  Peschiera.  The  Austrians 
were  beaten  at  Goito,  in  attempting  a  diversion  in  its  favour. 
Peschiera  was  taken  after  two  days'  fighting,  and  Charles  Albert 
took  up  his  quarters  there.  These  conquests  were  rendered  of 
little  avail,  however,  by  the  imbecility  or  treachery  of  Durando, 
the  Roman  general,  who  surrendered  Vicenza  to  Radetski, 
although  he  knew  an  army  was  marching  to  his  assistance,  and 
he  had  a  strong  force  within  the  city.  Radetski  soon  became 
master  of  all  the  Venetian  territory,  except  the  capital,  which 
was  defended  by  the  Neapolitans,  under  General  Pepe. 

In  the  beginning  of  July,  the  Piedmontese  army  occupied  a 
line  thirty  miles  in  length ;  from  Mantua  on  its  right,  to  Rivoli 
on  its  left.  General  Bava  defeated  four  thousand  Austrians 
near  Governolo ;  but  this  only  served   to  fill  Charles  Albert 


INSURRECTIONS  IN  ITALY.  791 

with  false  hopes.  On  the  22d  of  July,  the  whole  Austrian  force 
descended  on  La  Corona,  and  carried  the  lines  of  Rivoli.  The 
lines  of  Somma  Campagna  were  also  carried  after  a  brave  re- 
sistance, and  the  Austrians  became  masters  of  the  whole  terri- 
tory formerly  held  by  the  Piedmontese,  except  Peschiera.  On 
the  25th,  Charles  Albert,  at  the  head  of  thirty  thousand  men, 
advanced  against  the  Austrians,  at  Somma  Campagna.  There 
was  fought  the  decisive  battle.  It  lasted  from  five  in  the  morn- 
ing till  five  in  the  evening.  The  Piedmontese  fought  despe- 
rately, and  the  victory  was  only  decided  for  the  Austi'ians  by 
the  arrival  of  Radetski,  with  a  reserve  of  twenty  thousand  men. 
Charles  Albert  retreated  to  Milan,  with  the  remnant  of  his 
army,  and  preparations  were  made  for  a  grand  stand  at  that 
city ;  but  he  capitulated  to  Radetski,  and,  on  the  7th,  the  Aus- 
trians again  ruled  in  Milan,  and  things  returned  to  their  old 
state.  From  the  oppressive  measures  taken  by  Radetski,  there 
is  no  fear  that  the  people  of  Lombardy  will  cease  to  detest 
Austrian  rule. 

Venice,  forsaken  by  all  her  allies,  maintained  her  inde- 
pendence. Besieged  and  blockaded  by  land  and  sea,  her  peo- 
ple firmly  upheld  their  republican  government,  and  submitted 
to  the  greatest  privations  with  a  fortitude  that  commanded 
the  admiration  of  their  enemies.  Manini  was  the  repub- 
lican chief,  and  he  nobly  sustained  the  reputation  he  had 
acquired  as  a  pure  and  able  republican.  Several  encounters 
took  place  between  the  Austrians  and  the  heroic  defenders  of 
Venice,  in  which  the  latter  were  successful.  The  number  of 
their  troops  was  about  twenty  thousand,  many  of  the  legions  of 
which  were  commanded  by  skilful  French  officers.  Fourteen 
hundred  cannon  were  mounted  on  thirty-six  forts  on  the  shore, 
opposite  the  city.  The  siege  continued  more  than  five  months, 
and  then  the  Venetians  surrendered  on  favourable  terms. 

In  the  mean  time,  Charles  Albert  was  making  extensive  pre- 
parations for  another  campaign.  He  proclaimed  his  resolve  to 
drive  the  Austrians  beyond  the  Alps,  or  perish  in  the  attempt. 
The  conflict  was  obstinate,  but  of  short  duration ;  and  on  the 
plains  of  Verelli,  the  hopes  of  Northern  Italy  were  completely 
overthrown.  Three  successive  battles  were  fought ;  the  last  on 
the  4th  of  March,  1849.  Fifty  thousand  men  on  each  side  were 
engaged.     Charles  Albert  and  his  followers  displayed  the  most 


792  INCIDENTS    OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

undaunted  heroism,  and  the  Sardinian  king  sought  to  die  on  the 
field,  when  he  found  that  all  was  lost.  But  death  would  not  be 
invited.  The  Piedmontese  fled  to  the  mountains  ;  Charles  Al- 
bert resigned  the  Sardinian  crown  to  his  son  Victor  Emanuel, 
and  Austrian  order  was  restored  to  Northern  Italy. 

In  Rome,  the  liberal  concessions  of  the  pope  made  him  very 
popular  for  a  while.  But  the  demands  of  the  people  went  far- 
ther than  agreed  with  the  views  or  the  intentions  of  their  ruler. 
The  pope  signified  to  the  chamber  of  deputies  that  they  wanted 
too  much,  and  that  he  would  be  compelled  to  defend  his  prero- 
gatives against  further  encroachment.  This  symptom  of  reac- 
tion alarmed  the  Romans,  and  the  breach  between  them  and 
the  pontiff  widened  every  day.  Popular  outbreaks  were  of 
such  frequent  occurrence,  that  the  pope  began  to  regard  the 
palace  as  an  unsafe  residence.  On  the  24th  of  November, 
1848,  the  supreme  pontiff,  disguised  as  a  servant  of  the  Bava- 
rian envoy,  Count  Spohr,  left  Rome,  and  hastened  to  the  town 
of  Gaeta,  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  where  he  became  the 
guest  of  King  Ferdinand.  From  Gaeta,  the  pope  issued  a 
manifesto,  condemning  the  republicans  of  Rome,  and  explaining 
the  reasons  which  induced  his  flight.  He  also  nominated  a 
governing  commission,  under  the  lead  of  Cardinal  Castricane, 
to  execute  his  orders  in  Rome.  The  people  received  the  mani- 
festo with  the  most  profound  contempt  and  indignation.  The 
individuals  appointed  to  administer  the  government  prudently 
left  the  city  as  soon  as  possible. 

A  counter-proclamation  was  immediately  issued  by  the  depu- 
ties, and  messengers  sent  to  Gaeta  to  request  the  pope  to  return 
to  Rome.  The  conditions  which  he  demanded  were  so  despotic 
that  the  people  at  once  set  about  organizing  a  government  for 
themselves.  A  day  was  appointed  for  the  election  of  a  con- 
stituent assembly  to  frame  a  constitution.  The  pope  issued  a 
protest  against  the  election,  and  excommunicated  all  who  should 
vote.  But  excommunication  had  no  power  to  control  the  Ro- 
mans, or  prevent  them  from  choosing  their  rulers.  They 
laughed  at  it,  and  a  number  of  cardinals  joined  them  in  censur- 
ing the  protest.  The  election  was  conducted  with  order  and 
regularity.  When  the  constituent  assembly  first  met,  the  ques- 
tion came  up,  what  form  of  government  should  be  adopted  by 
the  Roman  states.     The  debate  was  lengthy,  but  was  conducted 


INSURRECTIONS   IN  ITALY.  793 

calmly  and  with  an  earnest  desire  to  reach  a  wise  conclu- 
sion. 

On  the  morning  of  the  9th  of  February,  1849,  it  was  decided 
that  the  form  of  government  should  be  a  pure  democracy,  and 
take  the  name  of  the  Roman  republic,  and  that  the  pope  should  be 
guarantied  his  spiritual  power  only.  Only  five  members  out  of 
one  hundred  and  forty-four  voted  negatively.  A  provisional 
ministry  had  been  appointed  after  the  refusal  of  the  pope  to  re- 
turn to  Rome,  of  which  Armelini  was  the  head.  On  the  deci- 
sion of  the  assembly  in  favour  of  a  republic,  he  came  forward 
and  resigned  his  powers ;  but  the  assembly  voted  that  he  and 
his  colleagues  should  retain  their  authority  for  the  time.  The 
proclamation  of  the  republic  was  received  with  every  mark  of  joy 
and  satisfaction  by  the  Romans. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  pope  remained  at  Gaeta,  uncertain 
what  course  to  pursue.  To  call  in  foreign  aid  would  be  at  once 
to  own  that  he  had  lost  the  confidence  and  attachment  of  that 
people  whom  he  had  asserted  were  only  misled  by  bad  men. 
Yet  this  course  he  was  compelled  to  adopt,  or  remain  in  exile. 
He  appealed  to  the  Catholic  powers  of  Europe ;  and  Austria, 
Spain,  Naples,  and  even  republican  France  answered  him  fa- 
vourably. The  government  of  France  fitted  out  an  expedition, 
the  destination  and  purpose  of  which  were  shrouded  in  mys- 
tery. On  the  22d  of  April,  1849,  an  army,  under  General 
Oudinot,  set  sail  from  Marseilles,  and  landed  at  Civita  Vecehia. 
Before  embarking,  a  proclamation  was  issued,  the  words  of  which 
led  the  French  troops  and  the  Italian  people  to  believe  that 
the  army  was  designed  to  uphold  the  republican  cause. 

The  Austrians,  under  Marshal  Winpan,  entered  the  papal 
states  on  the  north,  an  army  of  Neapolitans  advanced  on  the 
south,  and  a  body  of  Spaniards  landed  at  Micino.  Rome  was 
surrounded ;  but  her  brave  people  were  active  in  preparation 
for  defence,  and  firm  in  maintaining  their  republic.  One  soul 
seemed  to  animate  the  whole  people,  and  the  old  Roman  spirit 
was  awake.  To  give  greater  efficiency  to  the  government,  a 
triumvirate  was  appointed,  consisting  of  Armelini,  Saflfi,  and 
Mazzini,  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  republicans.  For  a  time,  vic- 
tory favoured  the  Roman  arms.  The  Neapolitans  were  routed 
at  Palestrina,  and  the  Austrians  and  Spaniards  did  not  hurry 
their  march.     The  struggle  now  lay  between  Rome  and  France. 

100  3R 


794  INCIDENTS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

Oudinot  soon  arrived  before  Rome,  and  sent  a  deputation  to 
the  government.  They  declared  the  object  of  the  French  in- 
vasion was  to  prevent  Austrian  interference  and  restore  the 
pope  to  his  dominions,  and  they  demancfed  that  the  gates  of 
the  city  should  be  thrown  open  to  the  French  army.  The  go- 
vernment rejected  the  interference  of  the  French,  and  refused 
to  admit  them.  Preparations  for  defence  were  made  on  an  ex- 
tensive scale,  and  Oudinot  was  told  that  Rome  would  resist  his 
entrance  with  all  her  power.  The  attack  was  then  begun  by 
the  French.  The  defenders  fought  bravely,  and,  after  a  long 
struggle,  the  French  were  repulsed,  with  the  loss  of  six  hundred 
killed  and  a  large  number  of  wounded  and  prisoners.  The  ge- 
neral himself  was  nearly  taken.  The  Romans  were  under  tbe 
command  of  General  Garibaldi  and  other  able  men.  The 
French  fell  back  to  wait  for  reinforcements,  which  soon  arrived, 
and  Oudinot  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army, 
supplied  with  every  requisite  for  a  siege. 

To  a  second  summons  to  surrender,  the  triumvirs  returned 
an  answer  full  of  the  indignant  feeling  of  the  Romans.  An 
eloquent  appeal  was  made  to  the  French  soldiers  by  Mazzini ; 
but  they  had  been  defeated,  and  that  drowned  all  thought  of 
aiding  the  Romans.  The  attack  was  renewed  on  the  3d  of 
June,  and  the  besieged  met  it  obstinately.  Battle  after  battle 
was  fought,  and  the  siege  continued  until  the  30th  of  June, 
when  the  triumvirs,  considering  all  further  resistance  hope- 
less, ceased  hostilities  and  virtually  surrendered.  The  last  acts 
of  the  assembly  were  to  order  the  constitution  to  be  engraved 
on  marble  and  deposited  in  the  capital,  and  that  funeral  ser- 
vices should  be  celebrated  for  those  who  had  fallen  in  defence 
of  the  city.  The  French  army  then  entered  Rome,  and  the 
republican  leaders  fled.  General  Garibaldi,  at  the  head  of  a 
small  force,  took  refuge  in  the  mountains,  from  whence  he  sub- 
sequently escaped  to  England.  Thus  was  the  Roman  republic, 
the  free  choice  of  the  whole  people,  crushed  by  foreign  soldiery, 
and  those,  too,  from  a  republic.  The  pope  could  not  be  in- 
duced to  return  to  Rome  for  some  time  after  its  capture,  and 
when  he  did  he  was  coldly  received. 


CALIFORNIA   AND   ITS   GOLD   MINES. 


795 


COLONEL    FREMOKT. 


ACQUISITION   OF   CALIFORNIA  AND   ITS 
GOLD  MINES. 

EFORE  the  commencement  of  hostili- 
ties between  the  United  States  and 
Mexico,  in  1846,  the  territory  of  Up- 
per California  formed  the  north-west- 
ern <  )rtion  of  the  republic  of  Mexico. 
The  principal  portion  of  its  inhabi- 
tants were  Indians,  on  account  of 
whose  hostility  the  interior  of  the 
territory  was  but  imperfectly  known. 
The  settlements  of  the  descendants 
of  the  Spaniards  and  Mexicans  were  either  situated  upon  the 


796  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

coast  of  the  Pacific,  or  a  short  distance  in  the  interior.  These 
small  villages  and  towns  had  grown  up  around  the  missions 
established  at  different  places  by  the  Jesuits,  at  an  early  period. 
The  town  of  Monterey,  situated  upon  the  coast,  was  the  prin- 
cipal port ;  while  Ciudad  de  los  Angeles,  situated  about  twenty- 
five  miles  from  the  coast,  was  the  largest  town,  and  the  capital 
of  the  territory.  The  only  articles  of  export  were  hides  and 
tallow,  and  the  commerce  of  the  country  was  monopolized  by  a 
few  American  and  English  merchants,  residing  at  Monterey, 
San  Diego,  and  San  Francisco.  These  ports  were  often  the 
resort  of  vessels  of  war  cruising  in  the  Pacific,  and  also  of  some 
whalers.  Portions  of  the  country,  situated  principally  in  the 
valley  of  San  Jose,  and  the  neighbourhood  of  Los  Angeles,  were 
considered  worth  cultivating ;  and,  at  Los  Angeles,  great  quan- 
tities of  grapes  and  various  fruits  were  raised.  But  the  greater 
portion  of  the  territory  was  thought  to  be  only  fit  for  grazing 
purposes,  and,  consequently,  the  population  increased  very 
slowly. 

Intelligence  of  the  beginning  of  hostilities  upon  the  Rio 
Grande  having  been  received,  on  the  2d  of  July,  Commodore 
Sloat,  commander  of  the  United  States  Pacific  squadron,  arrived 
at  Monterey,  and  on  the  7th,  the  American  flag  was  hoisted 
over  that  town,  amid  the  cheers  of  the  Americans,  and  a  salute 
of  twenty-one  guns  from  the  ships  in  the  harbour.  A  procla- 
mation was  then  issued  to  the  inhabitants  of  California,  by  Com- 
modore Sloat.  On  the  8th,  the  American  flag  was  hoisted  at 
San  Francisco,  by  Commander  Montgomery,  of  the  sloop-of- 
war  Portsmouth,  and  a  volunteer  corps  of  resident  Americans 
was  immediately  organized.  On  the  same  day,  purser  Faunt- 
leroy,  of  the  frigate  Savannah,  was  ordered  to  organize  a  com- 
pany of  dragoons,  volunteers  from  the  ships  and  the  citizens  on 
shore,  to  reconnoitre  the  country,  and  keep  the  communication 
open  between  Monterey  and  the  more  northern  posts  occupied 
by  the  Americans.  Captain  Fremont,  who  had  arrived  in  Cali- 
fornia by  an  over*  and  journey,  with  a  party  of  about  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  men,  took  possession  of  Sonoma,  One  of  the 
most  northerly  posts  in  the  territory,  and,  leaving  a  small  gar- 
rison at  that  place,  marched  for  the  mission  of  San  Juan,  about 
thirty  miles  east  of  Monterey.  He  arrived  there,  and  took  pos- 
session of  the  mission  without  opposition,  about  one  hour  before 


CALIFORNIA  AND   ITS  GOLD   MINES.  797 

the  arrival  of  purser  Fauntleroy,  who  had  marched  to  accom- 
plish the  same  object.  At  San  Juan  were  found  nine  pieces  of 
cannon,  two  hundred  old  muskets,  twenty  kegs  of  powder,  and 
sixty  thousand  pounds  of  cannon-shot.  Both  parties  marched 
to  Monterey,  the  next  day  after  taking  possession  of  the  mission. 

The  fortification  of  Monterey  was  commenced  immediately 
after  the  raising  of  the  United  States  flag.  On  the  23d,  Com- 
modore Sloat  sailed  in  the  Levant  for  the  United  States,  leaving 
Commodore  Stockton  in  command  of  the  Pacific  squadron.  Im- 
mediately after,  the  Cyane,  Commodore  Dupont,  with  Captain 
Fremont  and  volunteers  on  board,  sailed  for  San  Diego,  and 
the  frigate  Congress,  Commodore  Stockton,  sailed  for  San  Pe- 
dro, the  port  of  Los  Angeles,  the  capital  of  California.  The 
frigate  Savannah  remained  at  Monterey,  and  the  sloop-of-war 
Portsmouth  at  San  Francisco.  Thus  all  the  different  ports  of 
the  territory  were  secured. 

On  the  17th  of  August,  Commodore  Stockton  issued  a  procla- 
mation, declaring  California  in  the  full  and  peaceable  possession 
of  the  United  States,  and  authorizing  the  election  of  civil  offi- 
cers throughout  the  country.  Colonel  Fremont  soon  afterwards 
went  northward,  with  only  forty  men,  intending  tq,  recruit  and 
return  immediately.  Early  in  September,  Commodore  Stock- 
ton withdrew  all  his  forces,  and  proceeded  with  the  squadron  to 
San  Francisco.  Capt.  Gillespie  was  left  in  command  of  the 
Pueblo  de  los  Angeles,  with  about  thirty  riflemen  ;  and  Lieut. 
Talbot  in  command  at  Santa  Barbara,  with  only  nine  men. 
Scarcely  had  Commodore  Stockton  arrived  at  San  Francisco, 
when  he  received  information  that  all  the  country  below  Mon- 
terey was  in  arms,  and  the  Mexican  flag  again  hoisted. 

Commodore  Stockton,  having  come  down  in  the  Congress  from 
San  Francisco,  then  took  command  of  the  sailors,  and  dragging 
by  hand  six  of  the  ship's  guns,  he  marched  towards  Los  An- 
geles. At  the  ranche  Sepulvida,  they  found  the  Californians 
prepared  to  meet  them.  A  desperate  battle  ensued,  in  which 
the  Californians  were  totally  routed,  with  great  loss.  Com- 
modore Stockton,  having  acquired  a  sufficient  number  of  horses, 
mounted  his  men,  and  organized  his  force  for  land  operations. 
From  this  battle,  the  war  was  waged  in  a  series  of  skirmishes, 
until  January,  1847. 

In  the  mean  time  a  party  of  three  hundred  men  under  Gcne- 

8b2 


798  INCIDENTS   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 

ral  Kearny,  left  Santa  Fe,  in  New  Mexico,  on  the  25th  of 
September,  1846,  and  marched  for  California.  Meeting  a 
small  return  party  from  California,  General  Kearny  received 
information  that  the  country  had  been  completely  subdued 
by  Commodore  Stockton,  and  in  consequence  of  this  infor- 
mation, he  sent  back  two  hundred  dragoons  under  Major  Sum- 
ner, to  remain  in  New  Mexico.  With  one  hundred  dragoons, 
and  two  mountain  howitzers,  under  Captain  Moore,  General 
Kearny  continued  his  march,  and  on  the  2d  of  December 
reached  Warner's  ranche,  the  frontier  settlement  of  California, 
on  the  road  leading  to  Sonora.  Finding  a  body  of  Californians 
mounted,  ready  to  dispute  the  passage,  the  small  advance  guard 
made  a  furious  charge  upon  them,  and  being  supported  by  the 
dragoons,  the  enemy  gave  way,  still  keeping  up  their  fire.  Cap- 
tain Moore  pursued  the  Californians  for  about  half  a  mile,  when 
they  halted,  upon  seeing  an  interval  between  the  advance  under 
Captain  Moore  and  the  rest  of  the  party.  They  charged  with 
their  lances,  and  did  considerable  execution  ;  but  the  rest  of  the 
Americans,  coming  up,  drove  them  from  the  field.  The  loss  of 
the  Americans  was  thirty-four,  in  killed  and  wounded.  The 
march  of  General  Kearny's  troops  was  then  continued,  and  on 
the  12th,  they  arrived  at  San  Diego,  upon  the  Pacific  coast. 

On  the  29th  of  December,  General  Kearny  left  San  Diego, 
with  about  six  hundred  men.  This  force  marched  without  any 
opposition,  until  the  8th  of  January,  when  they  found  the  Cali- 
fornians, to  the  number  of  six  hundred  mounted  men,  with  four 
pieces  of  artillery,  under  the  command  of  General  Flores,  sta- 
tioned upon  the  heights  which  commanded  the  crossing  of  the 
river  San  Gabriel.  The  necessary  dispositions  were  soon  made 
by  General  Kearny,  and  his  whole  force  then  forded  the  river, 
carried  the  heights,  and  drove  the  enemy  from  them,  after  an 
action  of  an  hour  and  a  half.  The  Americans  encamped  on  the 
field  till  the  next  morning. 

On  the  next  day,  the  9th  of  January,  the  march  was  re- 
sumed. When  General  Kearny's  force  reached  the  plains  of 
the  Mesa,  they  found  the  Californians  again  prepared  to  dis- 
pute their  progress.  The  artillery  opened  upon  them  in  front, 
and,  after  hovering  near  and  skirmishing  for  about  two  hours, 
the  Californians  concentrated  their  force  and  charged  the  left 
flank  of  the  Americans  ;  but  they  were  quickly  repulsed.    They 


CALIFORNIA  AND   ITS   GOLD   MINES.  799 

then  retired,  and  on  the  following  morning  the  victorious  troops, 
under  General  Kearny,  entered  the  «  City  of  the  Angels," 
without  opposition. 

These  two  battles  decided  the  contest,  and,  on  the  13th  of 
January,  the  enemy  capitulated  to  Lieutenant-colonel  Fremont, 
near  San  Fernando.  Peace  being  restored,  General  Kearny 
was  appointed  to  the  post  of  civil  and  military  governor  of 
California,  and  he  issued  a  proclamation  absolving  the  Califor- 
nians  from  their  allegiance  to  Mexico. 

The  conquest  of  California  by  the  United  States  troops  gave 
an  impetus  to  emigration  to  that  country,  and  things  began  to 
wear  a  livelier  aspect.  At  the  close  of  the  war  with  Mexico, 
the  United  States  became  possessed  of  California  as  far  south  as 
the  thirty-second  degree  of  latitude,  and  then  the  settlement  of 
the  country  proceeded  more  rapidly.  Colonel  Mason  was  appoint- 
ed to  exercise  the  functions  of  governor  and  military  commandant, 
and  tranquillity  reigned  throughout  the  territory,  until  an  event 
occurred  which  gave  a  new  spring  to  affairs,  and  changed  the 
whole  appearance  of  the  country  in  a  few  years. 

In  the  latter  part  of  February,  1848,  a  mechanic,  named 
James  Marshall,  was  employed  in  building  a  saw-mill  for  John 
A.  Sutter,  Esq.,  on  the  south  branch  of  a  river  known  in  Cali- 
fornia as  the  American  Fork,  some  fifty  miles  from  New  Helvetia, 
or  Sutter's  Fort.  While  employed  in  cutting  a  mill-race  or 
canal  for  this  improvement,  Mr.  Marshall  discovered  the  pieces 
of  gold  as  they  glistened  in  the  sunlight  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sluices.  Pieces  of  considerable  size  were  taken  from  the  water, 
and  in  a  few  days  gold  to  the  amount  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  was  removed  in  this  manner.  The  labourers  on  the 
works,  mostly  Mormons,  soon  became  satisfied  of  its  precious 
nature,  and  the  news  spread  rapidly  about  the  country.  Ex- 
aminations were  prosecuted  at  other  points  along  the  stream, 
and  almost  everywhere  with  success.  Reports  of  a  most  mar- 
vellous nature  soon  reached  the  coast  touching  these  mines. 
Their  apparent  extravagance  created  incredulity,  and  the  pub- 
lic attention  was  not  fully  called  to  the  subject  until  gold-dust 
or  grain-gold  was  brought  into  the  market  in  considerable 
quantities  for  sale.  Doubt  soon  became  belief,  and  a  change, 
almost  magical  in  its  nature,  pervaded  the  whole  population. 
Lawyers,  doctors,  clergymen,  farmers,  mechanics,  merchants, 


800  INCIDENTS   OF   MODERN   HISTORY. 

Bailors,  and  soldiers,  left  their  legitimate  occupations  to  embark 
on  a  business  where  fortunes  were  to  be  made  in  a  few  weeks. 
Villages  and  districts,  where  all  had  been  bustle,  industry,  and 
improvement,  were  soon  left  without  male  population.  Mecha- 
nics, merchants,  and  magistrates  were  alike  off  to  the  mines, 
and  all  kinds  of  useful  occupation,  except  gold-digging,  were 
here  apparently  at  an  end. 

At  one  time^pnly  seven  persons  were  left  in  the  town  of  San 
Francisco,  in  consequence  of  the  rush  for  the  gold  diggings. 
The  price  of  all  kinds  of  labour  and  of  merchandise  became 
enormously  high.  The  news  of  the  discovery  was  not  long  in 
reaching  the  States,  and  then  began  the  influx  of  immigration. 
Every  route  leading  to  the  El  Dorado  was  filled  with  anxious 
ones,  and  the  shortest  road  thither  became  the  general  demand. 
Companies  for  mining  purposes  were  formed  in  all  directions. 
The  excitement  was  general  and  intense. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1848,  the  town  of  San  Fran- 
cisco had  increased  wonderfully  in  size,  and  new  towns  were 
laid  out  at  various  points  between  that  port  and  the  mines. 
Continued  discoveries  of  gold  at  various  places  on  the  tributa- 
ries of  the  Sacramento  added  new  fuel  to  keep  up  the  heat  of 
excitement,  and  emigrants  from  the  United  States,  Chili, 
Mexico,  and  even  China,  poured  into  San  Francisco,  or  came 
by  the  overland  journey  from  the  Atlantic  states  of  the  Union. 
The  old  towns  and  villages  began  to  give  signs  of  progress,  and, 
as  the  ports  began  to  be  the  resort  of  a  great  number  of  ves- 
sels of  all  nations,  bringing  great  quantities  of  merchandise  for 
the  expected  increase  of  demand,  the  towns  situated  in  the  fer- 
tile valleys  of  the  interior  attracted  some  who  preferred  trust- 
ing to  the  sure  reward  of  trade,  or  tilling  the  ground,  to  bear- 
ing the  fatigues  of  gold-digging.  From  being  a  half-settled, 
half-explored  grazing  country,  California  became  the  centre  of 
attraction  for  all  nations,  and  one  of  the  most  important  com- 
mercial countries  on  the  earth. 


THE   END. 


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